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A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
My Year Off
bookshelves: biography, fraudio, play-dramatisation
Read in February, 2009
At the age of 42, the chief editor of Faber and Faber, Robert McCrum, suffered a devastating stroke. This is a searingly honest account of his experience that includes extracts from his diary and that of his wife, Sarah.
From The Radio Times:
In 1995, Robert McCrum was a novelist and war reporter, and recently married to New York Times journalist Sarah Lyall.
But then he had a stroke. Aged 42, he found himself regaining consciousness, paralysed on one side and only able to reach a phone to call for help after effectively throwing himself down the stairs a few steps at a time. From then on, both McCrum and Lyall kept diaries, as best they could, of the practical issues of recovering from a stroke. But they also vividly recorded how frightening it is, how scared and angry they both became. Ten years after they collected their diaries into a book, The Afternoon Play recounts the events and melds dramatised moments with extracts from their writing. It's like hearing the story and getting flash peeks directly into their souls.
-- William Gallagher
Robert.........................................AIex Jennings
Paramedic/Speech therapist.....................Rachel Atkins
Sarah.......................................Madeleine Potter
Doctor/Dentist.................................Richard Laing
Producer Karen Rose
From The Radio Times:
In 1995, Robert McCrum was a novelist and war reporter, and recently married to New York Times journalist Sarah Lyall.
But then he had a stroke. Aged 42, he found himself regaining consciousness, paralysed on one side and only able to reach a phone to call for help after effectively throwing himself down the stairs a few steps at a time. From then on, both McCrum and Lyall kept diaries, as best they could, of the practical issues of recovering from a stroke. But they also vividly recorded how frightening it is, how scared and angry they both became. Ten years after they collected their diaries into a book, The Afternoon Play recounts the events and melds dramatised moments with extracts from their writing. It's like hearing the story and getting flash peeks directly into their souls.
-- William Gallagher
Robert.........................................AIex Jennings
Paramedic/Speech therapist.....................Rachel Atkins
Sarah.......................................Madeleine Potter
Doctor/Dentist.................................Richard Laing
Producer Karen Rose
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