Nicci Gerrard

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Books

Associate: Eli Keren

Books

Nicci Gerrard writes for The Observer and is the co-author, with Sean French, of the bestselling Nicci French thrillers. She lives in Suffolk with her husband and four children.

 

Current Publication

WHAT DEMENTIA TEACHES US ABOUT LOVE - Allen Lane - April 2019

Dementia is an unmaking, a de-creation - an apocalypse of meaning. Since my father's slow-motion dying, and his actual death in November 2014, I have been much preoccupied with dementia: by those who have it, by those who look after them, by the hospital wards whose beds are occupied by those in advanced stages of this self-loss, by the way society denies it, by the science of it, the art and literature about it, the philosophy, by what it means to be human, to have an identity. What is it to be oneself, and what is it to lose one's self. Who are we when we are not ourselves, and where do we go?

This is a book about dementia - not a personal account, but an exploration, structured around this radically-slowed death. Full of people's stories, both sad and optimistic, it is a journey into the dusk and then the darkness - and then out on to the other side, where, once someone is dead, a life can be seen whole again.

 

Praise for WHAT DEMENTIA TEACHES US ABOUT LOVE - Allen Lane - April 2019

"Gerrard writes beautifully, encyclopaedically and with humanity." (Nicholas Timmins, senior fellow at the Institute for Government and the King’s Fund, honorary fellow of Royal College of Physicians, author of Five Giants)

"Nicci Gerrard exudes understanding of the breadth, scale and complexity of the dementias and the challenges they pose for society. Yet she communicates simply, personally and practically as if speaking individually to each of us." (Seb Crutch, Professor of Neuropsychology, Dementia Research Centre, University College London)

"Evocative and powerful, shining a light on a world which is often hidden and misunderstood." (Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England)

"Essential reading about love, life and care." (Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth)

"Nicci Gerrard writes with power, insight, empathy and extraordinary beauty about the world of dementia . . . and demonstrates how we can address the fear, despair and ignorance that has accompanied its spread." (Paul Webster, editor of the Observer)

"Nobody has written on dementia as well as Nicci Gerrard in this new book. Kind, knowing and infinitely useful." (Andrew Marr)

"This is a tender, lyrical, profound, urgent book . . . Gerrard has penned a treatise on what it is to be human." (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist and author)

"Gerrard ranges widely and wisely, raising questions about what it is to be human and facing truths too deep for tears." (Blake Morrison, poet and author of And When Did You Last See Your Father?)

 

Previous Publication

 
Secrets and memories collide in The Twilight Hour, the new novel from bestselling author Nicci Gerrard.

'Be with me now, at the twilight hour. When the light fails.'

'I'm here.'

'Tell me.'

'What shall I tell you?'

'Tell me about us, when we were young. What was it like? What was I like then?'

Eleanor Lee has lived a fiercely independent existence for over ninety years, but now it's time to tidy her life away - books, photographs, paintings, letters - a lifetime of possessions all neatly boxed up for the last time. But amongst them there are some things that must be kept hidden. And, nearing blindness, Eleanor needs help to uncover them before her children and grandchildren do.

Peter, a young man with a broken heart who feels as lost as Eleanor's past, is employed to help with this task. And together they uncover traces of another life - words and photographs telling a story of forbidden love, betrayal, passion, grief and self-sacrifice, which Eleanor must visit one last time.

By speaking her memories out loud, and releasing the secrets of her past, Eleanor can finally lay them to rest. To honour them at last, and protect those who must never know.

 

Praise for Nicci Gerrard

"Beguiling, poignant, wonderful." (Sunday Express)

"Acutely observed and beautifully written." (Woman and Home)

"Subtle, poignant and tremendously skilful" (Observer)

Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes
2014

Michael Joseph

Eleanor Lee has lived a fiercely independent existence for over ninety years, but now it's time to tidy her life away - books, photographs, paintings, letters - a lifetime of possessions all neatly boxed up for the last time. But amongst them there are some things that must be kept hidden. And, nearing blindness, Eleanor needs help to uncover them before her children and grandchildren do. Peter, a young man with a broken heart who feels as lost as Eleanor's past, is employed to help with this task. And together they uncover traces of another life - words and photographs telling a story of forbidden love, betrayal, passion, grief and self-sacrifice, which Eleanor must visit one last time. By speaking her memories out loud, and releasing the secrets of her past, Eleanor can finally lay them to rest. To honour them at last, and protect those who must never know.

2012

Penguin

When Marnie receives a phone call that summons her to the side of a once-beloved friend, she is wrenched from her orderly London life and sent back into a past from which she has fled but never escaped.

Ralph, Marnie and Oliver once knew each other well and are still inextricably bound by ties of love and betrayal. Now they meet again in Ralph's secluded cottage in the Scottish highlands, to spend the precious days that Ralph has left with each other.

As they reminisce, Marnie is taken back to the summer years ago when everything changed between them and heartbreak and desire broke up their little group. Will Ralph have the chance to say what needs to be said before it's too late? And can they put the devastating events of twenty years ago to rest and rekindle the intimacy they once shared?

2009

Penguin

When Marnie receives a phone call that summons her to the side of a once-beloved friend, she is wrenched from her orderly London life and sent back into a past from which she has fled but never escaped. Ralph, Marnie and Oliver once knew each other well and are still inextricably bound by ties of love and betrayal. Now they meet again in Ralph’s secluded cottage in the Scottish highlands, to spend the precious days that Ralph has left with each other. As they reminisce, Marnie is taken back to the summer years ago when everything changed between them and heartbreak and desire broke up their little group. Will Ralph have the chance to say what needs to be said before it’s too late? And can they put the devastating events of twenty years ago to rest and rekindle the intimacy they once shared?

2007

Penguin

Gaby and Connor seem to have a loving marriage, one that is built on knowing every last intricate detail about one another, or so Gaby has always believed. When their son Ethan sets off for university, discovering for the first time, the raw and uncontrollable intensity of falling in love, Gaby and Connor will be alone again; a chance to rediscover their relationship, just the two of them. But there is one person missing from Gaby's life. One person who she cannot forgot; Nancy, her best friend since childhood. As teenagers they shared their deepest secrets, fears and dreams for the future. As adults they discovered love; Gaby with Connor and Nancy with Gaby's adored brother, Stefan. The foursome became inseparable. Then one day, Nancy upped and left. Now, almost twenty years later, with Ethan away from home, Gaby finds herself idly watching television when a sharp stab of recognition hits her; the face she recognizes on the screen belongs to Nancy. Suddenly, the friend she thought she'd lost for good is within her reach. But does Nancy want to be found? The search for her long lost friend forces Gaby not only to revisit her past, but could also shatter the course of her future.

2005

Penguin

Irene has a husband, Adrian, three small children and - though she doesn't know it - a marriage that is going wrong. When she discovers that Adrian is having an affair, the family is blown apart. Solace is a story of contrasts. While Adrian finds new love and excitement, Irene spirals into exhaustion, self-destruction and a kind of madness. With their marriage in shreds and Adrian whisking their daughters on a trip of a lifetime to Australia with his new lover, Irene finally reaches rock bottom. She decides to leave the unbearable silence of her home for a trip by herself to visit her brother Jem in France. And as Irene soon realises, being along can mean discovering freedom, elation and even in the darkest of times, finding your solace.

2004

Penguin

A poignant of a sensitive schoolgirl, Edie, ill-at-ease with herself, who loses her virginity to a boy from a local council estate and is embarrassed when her father discovers the couple in a compromising state. Later, her father Vic loses his job and endures periods of black depression before committing suicide. Edie finds that she is forced to grow up very quickly, and puts her teenage romance in the past.

Non-Fiction

Publication DetailsNotes
2019

Allen Lane

Dementia is an unmaking, a de-creation - an apocalypse of meaning. Since my father's slow-motion dying, and his actual death in November 2014, I have been much preoccupied with dementia: by those who have it, by those who look after them, by the hospital wards whose beds are occupied by those in advanced stages of this self-loss, by the way society denies it, by the science of it, the art and literature about it, the philosophy, by what it means to be human, to have an identity. What is it to be oneself, and what is it to lose one's self. Who are we when we are not ourselves, and where do we go? This is a book about dementia - not a personal account, but an exploration, structured around this radically-slowed death. Full of people's stories, both sad and optimistic, it is a journey into the dusk and then the darkness - and then out on to the other side, where, once someone is dead, a life can be seen whole again.

2004

Short Books

One damp evening in August, two little girls went missing. For two weeks, the entire country was transfixed by their disappearance, and a shrine grew in the village where they lived. Then their naked bodies were found in a nettlefilled ditch and the caretaker of the local school was charged with their murder, his girlfriend with conspiracy. Sixteen months later, after a trial filled with unbearable detail, Ian Huntley was found guilty of murder; Maxine Carr of perverting the course of justice. The case was a detective story and a sinister fairy tale rolled into one, a narrative of loss, horror and collective mourning, a myth which seemed to tell us something about the way we live now, and the fears we all hold. Nicci Gerrard, who sat through the entire trial, asks what we can learn from Soham, why we care so much, and whether our intense empathy actually shuts us off from other less dramatic events.