Released on: September 9, 2008, 12:38 pm

Press Release Author: Elaine Eveleigh (author)

Industry: Entertainment

Press Release Summary: This is the true story of bringing up our autistic son, Guy.

Press Release Body: About the Author:

Elaine has been writing for a long time, mostly narrative poetry and short stories.
Her stories have been published in Punch, a famous, but now extinct magazine and
broadcast on Radio 3. More recently she had tried her hand at playwriting and had
amateur productions performed at local venues. She has lived all her life, 66 years,
on a hill in Somerset but only three miles from Bristol City.

About the book:

This is the true story of bringing up our autistic son, Guy. It has been a long
story. Charlie, Guy’s father, and I started out aged just twenty in 1961. And if I
was going to bring up a baby with learning and behavioural disabilities that
weren’t immediately apparent and didn’t qualify for kick-starting any professional
help, I may not have started from there. However, there are worse scenarios and
this isn’t a misery memoir. We were young, healthy and reasonably intelligent just
not expecting the Spanish Inquisition without an interpreter.
The baby years of wondering what we were doing wrong turned into not
wanting to admit the failure to conform was more Guy’s fault than ours. A
genetic difference that wasn’t going to be solved by a timely medical or
methodical adjustment. It was us who had to adjust to him and try and
bring family and friends along with us. More a change of attitude and
expectations. He didn’t do what it said on the tin. Once we’d got over
the shock of intellectual failure we had to face up to the social
minefield, back then “Mentally handicapped” carried more of stigma.
One size rarely fits all however, and we battled with education
authorities, doctors, family and friends, bus drivers, shop keepers and
barmen as Guy made his way through life variously out of step. Though it
is the life of Guy it also our life and the life of the times, nearly
five decades when more things have happened to the world than to us.
The story hasn’t ended yet but people are better informed and more
accepting of difference, or accepting in a more structured way. Charlie,
Guy and I too are older and wiser and we all understand each other a lot
better. It has been a bit of an obstacle course but as another generation
overtakes Guy we no longer think we’re travelling in the slow lane nor
have any intention of trying to keep up. Rather that Guy hears a
different drummer and we’ve picked up the beat.

-- END


Notes From A Literal Life can be ordered from Chipmunka Publishing at:

http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1204



FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK, CONTACT:

Elaine Eveleigh (author)
E-mail: elaine@charlie6571.fsnet.co.uk


Web Site:
http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1204


Contact Details: Elaine Eveleigh (author)
E-mail: elaine@charlie6571.fsnet.co.uk