Martin Slevin's mum is an active and fiercely independent woman who runs her own business and brooks no nonsense from Martin and his father. But when her husband dies everything crumbles, and she becomes listless and forgetful.
Eventually, she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and Martin puts his own life on hold to care for her. Together, they embark on a long journey through dementia. The destination is never in doubt -- but it's a comical and unpredictable ride, as she watches TV with a frozen goose, holds sing-songs with an imaginary Irish band and insists on pinning all of Martin's socks to the wall.
And all the time, a question nags away at him: just who is the little girl in the radiator, with whom his mum has urgent, whispered conversations each day?
WINNER of the Chairman's Choice Award at the British Medical Association Book Awards 2013
HIGHLY COMMENDED in the Popular Medicine category at the British Medical Association Book Awards 2013
"Deeply loving yet wryly comic... The most moving portrait of this cruel disease you'll ever read" - The Daily Mail
"This is not just another isn't dementia awful moan. It is a very honest and clear account of five years of a son looking after his mother - at home, in care homes and hospitals.... Slevin is a great raconteur, and the book is a page-turner. Many of the pages made me laugh out loud... A marvellous read." - Dementia Positive
THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE RADIATOR is an award-winning book. A tale of love, loss and family: the touching, sometimes hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking story of a man’s struggle to care for his mother after her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.
