As I might have mentioned a couple of times, Peter and I were invited to participate in the Felixstowe Book Festival to discuss “Slow Puncture” and it was an honour to be part of the Suffolk Showcase Day. Felixstowe in the sunshine is a wonderful thing to behold and yesterday we were blessed with glorious weather for our talk.
Before every talk we deliver, I try to predict what the audience’s reaction will be when they realise that we inject a soupcon of humour into our presentation. Mostly people are not expecting humour, flippancy, banter – call it what you will. But I was pleased to hear a satisfying, perhaps surprised, titter as we embarked on our introduction. This set the tone for the talk, and titters and giggles could be heard at odd moments (generally, I’m pleased to report, at the appropriate odd moments).
Nothing is rehearsed during our talks; oh, we have a slide presentation we occasionally refer to and we both have ideas about the direction in which we wish to go but it’s a bit like an unnavigated cycle ride. We might head for Orford but end up in Framlingham, perhaps passing Southwold inadvertently, but we have a jolly good time during the ride. We seemed to take the audience on the ride with us and somehow forty-five minutes did not feel quite enough to cover all bases. Last night, as I reflected on some of the areas that I would like to have broached I felt a little sad that I had omitted some key points. I was pleased, though, that I managed to give AlzAuthors a good plug as they remain a very special organisation: not just for what they have done for us and our books but for what they represent and for the incredible amount of work they undertake.
We received a warm round of applause, sold some books and - most importantly - I believe we were able to challenge, and perhaps, change perceptions about dementia and Peter was able to demonstrate that it is possible to live well with a diagnosis of this condition. I am privileged to stand next to Peter during these talks and to see how he continues to be the embodiment of living well with dementia.
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