“A sweet tale of sibling love, told without sentimentality” Summer BrotherBy Jaap Robben, translated from the Dutch by David Doherty (2021); World EditionsReview by Pam Foley, adult sibling. Teenager Brian comes from a dysfunctional family; his parents are divorced and he lives with his conniving father in a trailer home, located in a remote Dutch … Continued
My youngest brother Reuben, who has Down’s Syndrome, suffered a breakdown 4 years ago. It was a form of regression that locked him into himself. After two years of moving between my parents and partner´s homes, as we were trying to get him better, he moved into a care home in Dorset, UK. Then the … Continued
Conversations with Carers explores the lived experience of paid and unpaid carers through a series of podcasts and articles, which have also inspired 5 short dance films performed by disabled and non-disabled artists, some of who are also carers. Conversations with Carers is created by Rashmi Becker, MBE, Founder of Step Change Studios, and supported … Continued
Conversations with Carers is a series of podcasts, articles and innovative dance films, which examines the realities of paid and unpaid care. Conversations with Carers is created by Rashmi Becker, MBE, Founder of Step Change Studios, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England. In this video, you can watch dancers Max Cookward … Continued
Conversations with Carers is a series of podcasts, articles and innovative dance films, which examines the realities of paid and unpaid care. The work is created by Rashmi Becker, MBE, Founder of Step Change Studios, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Episode 3: The informal Carer Photo credit: Conversations with Carers, produced … Continued
My twin severely autistic brothers were institutionalised at the age of 7. I was 6 and our younger brother was 5 at the time. This was in 1962. I do not remember our parents explaining to us what was happening, nor why our family was being broken up. I remember that my twin brothers were … Continued
Shamini entered Poetry for Good, a national competition that ran in the Spring of 2021. Her piece ‘Risk Assessment: High’ was highly commended in the spoken word category. Many siblings will relate to this powerful and articulate poem, that highlights the unseen work of sibling carers during the pandemic. “I entered this competition because I … Continued
My debut novel, Patience, was published in hardback in August. At its heart is a severely disabled woman, Patience, who understands everything, even though everyone around her thinks she can’t. It took me a long time to realise – well into the editing process for the novel, long after I’d been given a book deal … Continued
When my younger brother and closest friend, Sam, passed away just shy of his twenty-seventh birthday from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disorder that effects hundreds of thousands of boys worldwide, I began writing to him from the passenger seat of grief. What started as frantic messages on my phone during a train ride to … Continued
“The Search for Still Waters is about one sibling’s journey to make sense of his feelings around the life and death of his sister, who had severe cerebral palsy. Aoife couldn’t walk or talk and her condition was little understood in 1980’s rural Ireland. When she passed away in 2011, her brother Alan was left … Continued