Looking After: A Portrait of My Autistic Brother

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From the author of Also Human comes a moving memoir about how autism shapes our relationships and what it means to be fufilled Meet Lionel. Fourteen years Caroline's senior, Lionel was born at a time when no-one knew what autism was, nor how to study or treat it. Terrifyingly, most autistic children were therefore institutionalised and often died of neglect in their thirties or forties. You've probably walked past men like Lionel in the street - men who look a bit dishevelled, shuffling around in ill-fitting shoes and food-stained trousers, talking to themselves. Men who laugh at a joke going on in their own head, but don't share it with anybody else. Perhaps you've wondered what their childhood was like, whether they had friends, or how they managed to look after themselves, day to day Thank You For Having Me will tell the story of one such man. An extraordinary man whose life was certainly unusual, but never dull.

Author Bio

Caroline Elton was born in north London, the youngest child after her sister Liz and their older brother, Lionel, who was autistic. Originally trained as a teacher, she changed career direction and for the past 25 years has worked as a psychologist who specialises in supporting medical students and doctors. The author of Also Human- The Inner Lives of Doctors, Caroline was appointed as Associate Professor/Senior Adviser at Norwich Medical school in 2022. She is married, with three children, and still lives in north London.