Singing Together
Anyone out there remember Singing Together? It ran on BBC radio for 60 years from 1939, when it was introduced to reach schoolchildren evacuated all over the country during the war. At 11 o’clock every Monday morning school teachers across Britain would tune in and their pupils would, well, sing together.
Dancing With Dementia
I studied ballet for fifteen years and, for me, a trained dancer’s body responding to music is one of the most powerful communicators of emotion, often transcending words.
So I was fascinated to hear about a professional dance theatre project inspired by people living with young onset dementia and their families and funded by the Arts Council of England.
Extraordinary Individuals
I often say of my writing that other people go out and actually do things while I merely observe and record in an attempt to join the dots, to make sense out of what I’m hearing and seeing, and hopefully offer a few meagre insights. Never was this truer than...
Why Mr Trump has made me angry
Every time I see the television clip of President Donald Trump describing the suspect in the Las Vegas attack – the worst mass shooting in modern US history – a “demented man”, I get angry. It was such an insensitive and harmful thing to say. By attributing the...
Ouch! Tiny break, big lesson
I broke the middle finger of my right hand playing tennis this summer. It didn’t even hurt much at first, but once we’d returned home I thought I should probably go to the doctor and, much to my dismay, he referred me to a consultant. “I think you’ll need to get...
Forever Caring – the circles of life
Several years after my elderly father died I received a call on my mobile from an unknown number as I sat in my car. Assuming it was from someone trying to sell me something I almost didn’t answer; when I did, the voice in my ear sent me swooping back in time and...
Alfred Barlow’s Medals
When I heard of a blind Second World War veteran’s appeal for the return of his lost medals I was very moved. Alfred Barlow, who took part in the D Day landings, was on his way back from visiting Normandy with his family when he realised that all four of his medals...
The Debenham Project
It must be pretty obvious now that I love stories – telling them, writing them, reading them and most of all, discovering them. The other day as I was researching something else (my ability to wander off course is legendary in my family), I stumbled across a corker....
Losing The Fear
It’s only fair to say that when I heard that a man had slept next to his dead wife’s body for six days I felt a bit squeamish. But earlier this week – Dying Awareness Week as it happens – I heard a wonderful piece of radio that challenged my reaction and made me...
Creative Ageing
Over the past few months London has played host to a clutch of plays about old age, death and dementia. Not the jolliest of topics, but as they are precisely what I write about, I went to see each one. They were all very good. What really intrigued me, however, was...
