the disease on six areas of her life: senses, relationships, emotions, environment, communication and attitude. Written in a chatty, readable style and filled with many anecdotes and stories, the book is packed with really insightful observations.

I was frightened, terrified of this progressive illness and its planned trajectory that would slowly and surely be revealed to me.Peter says, ‘I thought I knew quite a lot about dementia having had it thrust into my life in 1990, but I have learned an amazing amount from this book on many simple aspects of a person’s daily life with dementia. You never know what opportunities will come, and if this moment isn’t a good moment, the next one might be wonderful. By that I mean the pyramid of status we hold in the West with hospital consultants and professors at the top, other healthcare professional in the middle, unqualified people who work in healthcare further down and so on, seems to get inverted when it comes to treating people with dementia in an arrogant and uncaring manner.

If I’m with my daughters, people will speak to them instead of me, but my daughters are very good at saying, ‘Well why don’t you ask mum? I sobbed at this, because it was exactly how I felt and no-one else had ever really understood that until Wendy. If I had been diagnosed with cancer, or a stroke, or diabetes, would the consultant have discharged me? Think back to when you were a learner-driver, and you consciously had to think how to drive, step by step.She just needed to know that I was close, and that she wouldn’t be alone when death finally came to claim her. Dementia changed that: suddenly I found myself wanting to hug everyone that I met, or at least the people who I knew by instinct that I liked. I didn’t smoke and I didn’t drink, so I didn’t fit the profile of what you imagine from someone being diagnosed with dementia.