our books
One book is created in each residential care home, and the authors give the title to their book.
A copy of the book is given to each author. And our funding enables the authors to gift copies of their book to their families and friends, and to the staff who care for them. One book of selected writing from the project, is planned.
Here are some of the authors' comments when completing the work on their book. And the response of one of their readers: John Miller, a church minister and chaplain in Glasgow.
Anthea McKinlay
writer-in-residence
It’s good to let yourself be heard.
Bessie Mann
This book is a very good idea. It will tell people about a world other than their own.
Bridget McKay
I feel this book is an heirloom for my family.
Nan Pollock
It’s something that’s happened unexpectedly. It keeps our minds alive. When you see your words, all phased and timed on the page, when you think that people will read them, it’s gorgeous.
Janet Sutherland
I've enjoyed working on the book. One of the crew! Maybe the book will make me famous, or infamous!
Michael Mongan
Being in a book. It's something I never thought would happen to me. It's great.
Tommy Farrell
We don’t want our words to fade away. They should put them in the library, then this one and that one can read them. The library keeps words from here to eternity.
May Cooper
It’s nice having your name and your words in a book. It’s something you’re not used to. I like us all being in it. It’ll belong to everyone. Will it be in the community? It should be.
Ina Butler
I’d like the book to be something that people have been looking for. I’m proud to be in it. It’s very exciting.
Ellen McLellan
Dementia Authors
by John Miller
Minister, Castlemilk East Parish Church of Scotland, Glasgow.
Moderator of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in 2001
For over 30 years I have been a parish minister in Glasgow , and have spent many an hour in the company of men and women who are experiencing dementia. Two years ago I was shown a book created in a home where I had been Chaplain for 30 years. In it were profound thoughts, gems of wisdom, and humour. The book had been created by the residents with dementia, who had been working with Anthea McKinlay.
In my own conversations with these residents, I had often wondered if there were windows through which real communication was taking place, but I could not be certain. Now reading their words left me in no doubt that a far more substantial quality of communication is possible than I had dared to anticipate. Even when a person has quite advanced dementia, far more of their character remains accessible than I had thought.
Since reading the nine books that have been created to date - in what I view as a ground-breaking project - I go into encounters with people who have dementia confident that meaningful communication, whether in many words or very few, is not only possible, but to be expected.
Not long ago I attended the funeral service for the mother of a friend. At the tea afterwards, I found myself sitting beside an elderly gentleman. He had not responded much to a greeting from the chief mourner who had come over to thank him for being there, and I guessed that he had dementia. So it proved. But I was newly confident that within what he was still aware of, we could communicate. We had an intriuging talk, about his early days as a newspaper reporter and many other things besides. At the end of the afternoon, his wife was happy that her husband had been involved in speaking with someone. Clearly, she had expected him to be sitting looking into space - as now, in company, he always does.
I hope that these authors will be read by a wide public, especially people who are having to face dementia themselves, or in their family. And by people who in their life as professionals or volunteers, are closely involved with dementia. Through the words of these authors to whom Anthea McKinlay has listened with such perception, my own contacts with people with dementia have been transformed.
October 2004