MAN HE USED TO BE: Dementia and My Mad Dad

Darkly funny and touching, previously published in hardback as 'My Mad Dad' this is a rather special, warm and funny and loving and deeply moving book. Inadvertent cross-dressing. Attempted murder. Jail break. A waltz at a funeral. A hernia the size of Guernsey. These are the moments that glitter the messy road from cared-for to carer, a journey that Robyn Holingworth finds herself on when she's only 25 years old. Leaving London to return home to rural South Wales, Robyn finds that it's her old life - same teddy bears resting on her pillow, their bodies tucked under the duvet, same view of the garages behind which she'd had her first cigarette and her first kiss - but so much has changed. Her dad, the proud, charmingly intelligent, self-made man who made people laugh, is in the grip of early onset Alzheimer's. His brilliant mind which saw him building power stations and literally bringing light into the lives of others has succumbed to darkness. As Robyn settles back into the rhythms of life in the rain-soaked vast Welsh valleys, she keeps a diary charting her journey as the Dad she knew disappears before her eyes. Lyrical, poignant and with flashes of brilliant humour, the book explores how in helping others we can heal ourselves. 234pp, paperback with fairly large print.