My Books: Stories from the Heart
My current books are all on very different subjects, but each one involves people telling stories from their heart. Each is about ‘how it feels’ to be in a particular situation:
All use the words of real people, taken from interviews, to communicate very directly with the reader, rather like a TV documentary.
The Granny who Stands on Her Head
Reflections on growing older
“Somewhere in the middle of my seventies, I realised that I liked being old.”
So begins this set of engaging stories and thoughts on growing older by someone with a vast range of life experience to share.
Part memoir and part reflection on the joys and challenges of modern life, this book explores the nature of old age and how it compares to what came before. The author argues that being older does not have to be feared. Even better, it can be fun.
Wise Before Their Time
People with AIDS and HIV talk about their lives
In the 1980s and 1990s, a diagnosis of HIV was virtually a death sentence. Few treatments existed that could do much more than ease and prolong lives for a period. Those who were HIV positive were mostly young and it was a shock to everyone that they had a limited life span. This was one of the first books written from their point of view, in their own words. It is based on interviews with 21 people from all over the world attending an international Conference of people with HIV and AIDS in London in 1991, plus some supplementary contributions from others.
Life in a Hospice
Reflections on caring for the dying
None of us likes to think about what our last days will be like. But if we do think about them at all, we want them to be full of peace and tranquillity, with the chance to say proper goodbyes to those we love. Life in a Hospice takes you behind the scenes in end-of-life care, where you will see the enormous efforts of nurses, doctors, chaplains and others – even a thoughtful cook – to provide the calm that we all hope for.
Celebrating Grandmothers
Grandmothers talk about their lives
Becoming a grandmother is both exciting and challenging. In this book, 27 women describe – in their own words – how they responded to the many new pleasures and demands of being a grandmother. You will read about how their new role changed the texture of their lives, their family relationships and their sense of themselves.
