Book description
Clive Wearing has one of the most extreme cases of amnesia ever
known. In 1985, a virus completely destroyed a part of his brain
essential for memory, leaving him trapped in a limbo of the constant
present. Every conscious moment is for him as if he has just come
round from a long coma, an endlessly repeating loop of awakening. A
brilliant conductor and BBC music producer, Clive was at the height of
his success when the illness struck. As damaged as Clive was, the
musical part of his brain seemed unaffected, as was his passionate
love for Deborah, his wife.
For seven years he was kept in the London hospital where the
ambulance first dropped him off, because there was nowhere else for
him to go. Deborah desperately searched for treatments and campaigned
for better care. After Clive was finally established in a new special
hospital, she fled to America to start her life over again. But she
found she could never love another the way she loved Clive. Then
Clive's memory unaccountably began to improve, ten years after the
illness first struck. She returned to England. Today, although Clive
still lives in care, and still has the worst case of amnesia in the
world, he continues to improve. They renewed their marriage vows in 2002.
This is the story of a life lived outside time, a story that
questions and redefines the essence of what it means to be human. It
is also the story of a marriage, of a bond that runs deeper than
conscious thought.
Deborah Wearing campaigned for specialist services for brain-injured
people and helped found a national charity, the Amnesia Association
(merged in 1991 with Headway). She now works as a writer.
