Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything

by Sally Magnusson

$13.96

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Author: Sally Magnusson

Publisher: Two Roads

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 9781444751819
ISBN 13: 978-1444751819

'A fine book' The Sunday Times
'Powerful' Guardian
'Wonderful' The Telegraph
'Moving, funny, warm' Mail on Sunday
'Brave, compassionate, tender and honest' Metro

'This book began as an attempt to hold on to my witty, storytelling mother with the one thing I had to hand. Words. Then, as the enormity of the social crisis my family was part of began to dawn, I wrote with the thought that other forgotten lives might be nudged into the light along with hers. Dementia is one of the greatest social, medical, economic, scientific, philosophical and moral challenges of our times. I am a reporter. It became the biggest story of my life.' Sally Magnusson

Sad and funny, wise and honest, Where Memories Go is a deeply intimate account of insidious losses and unexpected joys in the terrible face of dementia, and a call to arms that challenges us all to think differently about how we care for our loved ones when they need us most.

Regarded as one of the finest journalists of her generation, Mamie Baird Magnusson's whole life was a celebration of words - words that she fought to retain in the grip of a disease which is fast becoming the scourge of the 21st century. Married to writer and broadcaster Magnus Magnusson, they had five children of whom Sally is the eldest.

As well as chronicling the anguish, the frustrations and the unexpected laughs and joys that she and her sisters experienced while accompanying their beloved mother on the long dementia road for eight years until her death in 2012, Sally Magnusson seeks understanding from a range of experts and asks penetrating questions about how we treat older people, how we can face one of the greatest social, medical, economic and moral challenges of our times, and what it means to be human.

Facebook.com/WhereMemoriesGo

Review

A heart rending and touching portrait... incredibly moving.―Psychologies

It is an emotional book, beautifully written, well observed, and important for all of us who at some stage or another be caught up in a similar tragedy... It is hard to read it without weeping―Magnus Linklater, West Highland Press - Books of the Year 2014

It is impressive that a book that can be so clear-eyed in its reporting can often leave the readers' eyes brimming... A brave, compassionate, tender and honest portrait of a mother and family that also informs a conversation we all need to be having. I daresay this book will prove to be what Mamie felt so frustrated in her declining years at not being: useful.―Metro

I was bowled over by this book. Intensely moving and inspiring, it is as much about living, laughing and family life as it is about loss and death. I read it in one sitting and thought about it again and again.―Joanna Lumley

A life-changing book... shot through on every page with insights about love, the strength of family life and the enduring human spirit... Where Memories Go is a triumph over the darkness of dementia―Sunday Post

The whole point of this book is that it starts with love. It opens out into medicine, philosophy, reportage from both sides of the Atlantic, but it only is able to be the profoundly moving book it is because it is infused with love to begin with.
Books like this are difficult to get right: just a hint of emotional dishonesty, whether self-pity or even lightly veiled self-praise, and they flounder. There's none of that here, just the opposite: this is a book written with a rare combination of analytical inquiry - Magnusson is clearly appalled by our collective lack of care for those with dementia and determined to do what she can to improve things - and intimate, deeply moving memoir.

―Scotsman

Touching... There are many moments of heartwarming sentiment. Literary snowdrops grow out of the barren earth... This book is the constant, tenuous but vital reconnection between a child and its mother... A fine book.―AA Gill, The Sunday Times

Powerful.―Guardian

Moving.―The Times

Moving, funny, warm account of her mother's demise and a clarion call for change.―Mail on Sunday (You Magazine)

About the Author

Sally Magnusson is the oldest of the five children of journalists Magnus Magnusson and Mamie Baird. A journalist and broadcaster herself, she has been a BBC news and current affairs presenter for many years. She has authored ten books, including non-fiction and children's, and her debut novel The Sealwoman's Gift will be out in February 2018.

She is the recipient of the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for writing 2014 and was shortlisted for the Saltire Literary Book of the Year award for Where Memories Go.

twitter.com/sallymag1
facebook.com/wherememoriesgo
www.sallymagnusson.com

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Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything