Bedside Reading
A medical humanities podcast where we explore themes from fiction, memoir and other non traditional non-textbooks which help to make us better at what we do.
Hosted by Dr Tara George, a GP and medical educator, in each episode a different guest explores a book that has changed their practice. Follow us on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/bedsidereading.bsky.social Facebook or Instagram @bedsidereadingpodcast. If you'd like to recommend a book or to come on the podcast as a guest please email: bedsidereadingpodcast@gmail.com. Episodes hosted by Tara George, edited by Levi Gee
Bedside Reading
Normal Family
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A warm welcome today to Pete Aird, who is here to talk about Henry Normal and Angela Pell's wonderful memoir, A Normal Family: Everyday Adventures with Our Autistic Son.
This is a book which absolutely blew me away. I couldn't put it down. I have adored Henry Normal's poetry for quite some time, and it was a really amazing window into the lives of two people, very successful TV people, and and Henry also as a poet, recognising that their son was going to be different to how they had imagined that he was going to be. They explore the challenges of bringing up a young person who is autistic and has a learning disability and the changes that that has required in them, the feelings that they have had and a really brutally honest portrayal of what it is to love and cherish and parent somebody who doesn't always give anything very much back to you and who you love so very much, want to protect, but don't have all of the tools to parent because the books are all based on a "normal" child.