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Amelia’s granny forgets lots of things. Little things, like where she put her glasses, and big things like people and places. But everything anyone has ever forgotten is stored in The Forgettery, and there Amelia and her granny learn the power of making memories.

Filled with warmth and gentle humour, The Forgettery is a beautifully written, sensitive look at dementia and memory loss. Over 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK, which will soar to 2 million by 2051. Globally, around 50 million people live with dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases each year. Opening up discussions surrounding this challenging topic with little ones has never been more important.

Without ever explicitly mentioning dementia, The Forgettery can be enjoyed as an adventure story where children explore a fantastical world where memories can be re-discovered and revisited as well as newly made. Rachel Ip’s tender words capture the wonderful bond between grandmother and granddaughter and Laura Hughes conjures up an exciting, wonderous space where our most precious memories are stored, and the challenge of dementia can be gently explored and understood.

Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelcip/
Follow the illustrator on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laura_a_hughes/

Philip Hensher on how he decided, at age 11, that it was time to move from children’s books to adult novels…

I don’t know why it was that, in the summer of 1976, I suddenly decided that I should make more of an effort to read novels. I was only 11. I’d been a great reader, but for some reason I felt that I was now too old to be reading nothing but children’s books. I ought to make an effort to master a grown-up writer, not idly but with concentration, following the plot and remembering who all the characters were.

My idea of a really good novel isn’t a sensitive monologue, or a relationship drama where neither participant seems to have a job. What I really love is a story about a group of people tied together by a joint venture, arguing, getting frustrated, forming bonds and breaking up again. Where did that passion come from? Arthur Hailey.

Quite why my choice fell on so grossly unsuitable a writer as Hailey, I can’t now guess. No one around was going to say “Well, maybe when you’re a bit older” or “There’s a prison rape scene in this one – I really don’t know about it”. W Hartley Seed’s bookshop on West Street in Sheffield was apparently quite happy to sell these massive paperbacks with garish covers and gilt titles to a child, and I have to say I lapped them up.

The one I adored, and have just read again with a lot of enjoyment, was The Moneychangers.

via The Moneychangers is cliched, lurid and utterly absorbing | Philip Hensher | Books | The Guardian.

The Forgettery by Rachel Ip ill. Laura Hughes

Philip Hensher on how he stopped reading children’s books at age 11