Book Launch: 'DON'T PUT US AWAY: MEMORIES OF A MAN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES'

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Time: 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Venue: Board Room H2.7 (2nd floor Hunter Wing), St George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE
Price: free
Speaker(s): Richard Keagan-Bull and special guests

You are invited to attend the book launch of
DON'T PUT US AWAY: MEMORIES OF A MAN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
by Richard Keagan-Bull

Programme
18:00 Doors open
18:30 Welcome by Professor Irene Tuffrey-Wijne
18:35 Richard Keagan-Bull shares stories and extracts from his book (together with Hazel Bradley)
19:00 Book buying, signing & refreshments
The book will be available to buy with a 20% discount.

The author, Richard Keagan-Bull, is employed as a researcher at Kingston University. He has learning disabilities. He struggles to read and write, but he has dictated his life story to his friend-turned-secretary Hazel Bradley. It is written exactly as he speaks – not necessarily grammatically correct, but with a unique directness and power.
This book is a unique, honest and powerful account of what it is like to grow up with learning disabilities in the UK.

Richard tells the story of growing up in 1970s England and living through the decades where people with learning disabilities were increasingly given a voice. It is a story of finding your place in a world that is not always welcoming, but also of finding friends. Starting with his birth when his mother was told he would never do anything, and his early years, when he was rubbished by the headmaster who threw his schoolwork out of the window, he ends his book almost half a century later, when the boy who would never do anything landed a job at the university as a researcher.
Richard writes about serious subjects with a very light touch. It will be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain an extremely rare insight into the life of a person with learning disabilities, in a voice that is so completely his own.

From the FOREWORD by MEL GIEDROYC:
"This is an important gem of a book. Richard allows you, the reader, to see the world through the lens of a person with a learning disability, and it is an eye opener… Be it family, school, college, workplace, his wide circle of friends, the community of L' Arche or church, Richard shows us how essential it is to feel part of one. Not just as a box to be ticked. But as a real and important beating heart of one."

"Richard's book is moving and funny, and it is really important… Richard writes so clearly about his extraordinary life, and in doing so he speaks powerfully about the experiences of disabled people and the importance of creating a society where everyone is valued, cherished and supported. This book should be read by policy makers, politicians and community leaders everywhere."
Helen Hayes MP

For further information about this event:

Contact: Anastasiya Stravolemova
Email: a.stravolemova@kingston.ac.uk