Abstract

The Man who Lost His Language is a unique exploration of aphasia - losing the ability to use or comprehend words - as well as of the resilience of love.

When Sir John Hale suffered a stroke that left him unable to walk, write or speak, his wife, Shelia, followed every available medical trail seeking knowledge of his condition and how he might be restored to health. This revised edition of a classic book includes an additional chapter detailing the latest developments in science and medicine since the first edition was published.

This personal account of one couple's experience will be of interest to all those who want to know more about aphasia and related conditions.

Sheila Hale's book enlarges the language of love.
Brenda Maddox
A moving insight into the redemption of a great man... provocative - and uplifting.
The Observer
A triumph... a classic in the same way that Oliver Sacks's Awakenings is.
Michael Frayn
Sheila Hale is a distinguished travel writer and journalist. She has written articles for The New York Times, the Observer, The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books. She gives lectures and talks about aphasia to primary care trusts, social workers and stroke charities. She is now working on a biography of the sixteenth century Venetian painter Titian.
A moving and frightening book, with implications that go well beyond the personal trauma that gave rise to it.
The Economist
This book provides a moving account of the life of Sir John Hale following a stroke in 1992 that left him with aphasia. It is written by his wife Sheila. On one level, this is a love story and, as such, provides a moving account of the efforts of Sheila and John to overcome or adapt to the challenges of the loss of language. In this sense it is an engaging memoir... this book provides valuable insights into contemporary approaches to diagnosing and treating aphasia. It illustrates the complexity of aphasia and the challenges and theories that have been adopted and tested to try to bring about enhancements for patients and those who care for them. Sheila and John embark on a journey that will test their resilience and relationship to the full. It moves the reader to understand that there can be life after stroke and this can be exhilarating.
Nursing Standard
An extraordinary and touching achievement.
Jonathan Miller
An intimate account of what happens when the person you love and lived a lifetime with is struck by a stroke. It weaves the emotional, the practical and the technical into a highly readable book.
Jon Snow
A lucid and fascinating account of Sheila Hale's search to understand the causes and nature of loss of speech... instructive and moving.
Daily Telegraph
When Sheila Hale's husband John suffered a stroke that left him unable to walk, write or speak normally she embarked on a battle to restore him to normal life. This book shows how she followed every medical trail seeking knowledge of his condition, and at the same time maintained an extraordinary loving intimacy with him. She tells their joint story with rare intelligence and feeling.
Claire Tomalin
I was left moved by this subtle, engaging and devoted memoir.
The Times Literary Supplement
The narrative of the individual case is, of course, highly personal. But it also drives forcefully home the message that each aphasia is different and how difficult it is to make generalizations here.
Metapsychology Online
Moving and sometimes angry... Anger, however, does not dominate this moving book: love, devotion and sadness do.
Sunday Telegraph
Heartfelt, passionate... a beautifully written and extremely interesting book
Literary Review
A luminous biographical memoir and an enthralling testament of love... No one can help wondering what surprises the next heartbeat may bring. Sheila Hale's acute and compassionate book makes the unknown country seem a little less desolate.
The Independent

Reviews of the first edition:

'Sheila Hale's own grief is clear. It emanates from every word, each one tinged with unalleviated longing for a lover and friend. Chaplains may read this as a work of medical condition, or a biography of a great man, but its deepest threads are a story of grief and loss.

Read this book as a cry of hurt and wonder from a wife looking into the darkness of a world stripped of words, which she had known, glimpsed, lived beside; a lost renaissance garden where once the nymphs of poetry and prose danced in the light of one man's intellect.'

Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy
An extraordinary achievement: a moving account of an intimate relationship, and a rigorous investigation into the most up-to-date medical theories and treatments of a mysterious affliction. It raises all kinds of questions about language, communication and the brain. Most remarkable, it's full of jokes and surprises. I keep on thinking what a good movie it would make.
Anthony Sampson
We have been given a truly inspired description of the power of love and devotion in the face of adversity. This is essential reading for anyone who wishes to know more about aphasia and related conditions.
Signpost, Journal of Dementia and Mental Health Care of Older People
One of the most remarkable additions to the literature of illness in our time.
The Times
The Man Who Lost his Language belongs on the same shelf as Jean-Dominique Bauby describing the stroke that left him paralysed except for one eyelid, Robert McCrum on the one from which he recovered, and John Bayley's account of Iris Murdoch's dementia. But it outstrips them all.
The Independent