What Dementia Teaches Us About Love

Immensely powerful … an incisive and compelling read. Gerrard, a crime novelist and former journalist, visits the “fresh hell” of hospitals across the UK, and interviews sufferers and those whose lives have been indelibly shaped by the diagnosis of a loved one … As well as being part-memoir and part-reportage, What Dementia Teaches Us About Love is also a great part philosophical inquiry into the nature of self and what it is to be human. * The Sunday Times *Essential reading about love, life and care – Kate Mosse * author of Labyrinth *An extraordinarily luminous book, at once terribly sad and frightening but also somehow hopeful and energising. – Nick Duerden * Independent *Nobody has written on dementia as well as Nicci Gerrard in this new book. Kind, knowing and infinitely useful – Andrew MarrGerrard ranges widely and wisely, raising questions about what it is to be human and facing truths too deep for tears * Blake Morrison, poet and author of And When Did You Last See Your Father? *This is a tender, lyrical, profound, urgent book … Gerrard has penned a treatise on what it is to be human – Yasmin Alibhai-Brown * columnist and author *Evocative and powerful, shining a light on a world which is often hidden and misunderstood * Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England *Gerrard writes beautifully, encyclopaedically and with humanity – Nicholas Timmins * senior fellow at the Institute for Government and the King’s Fund, honorary fellow of Royal College of Physicians, author of Five Giants *Nicci Gerrard exudes understanding of the breadth, scale and complexity of the dementias and the challenges they pose for society. Yet she communicates simply, personally and practically as if speaking individually to each of us – Sebastian Crutch * Professor of Neuropsychology, Dementia Research Centre, University College London *Nicci Gerrard writes with power, insight, empathy and extraordinary beauty about the world of dementia … and demonstrates how we can address the fear, despair and ignorance that has accompanied its spread – Paul Webster * editor of the Observer *

Nicci Gerrard is a novelist, journalist, campaigner, and humanist celebrant. In 2016, she won the Orwell Prize for Journalism for ‘Exposing Britain’s Social Evils’, a piece exploring the ‘language’ of dementia. Following her father’s death in 2014, she and her friend Julia Jones founded John’s Campaign, advocating for the rights of carers of people with dementia to accompany them in hospitals. The campaign, focused on compassionate care for vulnerable individuals, has become a national movement recognized by NHS policy makers, charities, nurses, doctors, and carers.