Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson

Grace Williams Says It Loud

Emma Henderson

Grace has many mental and physical handicaps and in the late 1950s, age 11, is consigned to a mental hospital where she spends the next 30 years. Narrated by Grace herself this is part tender love story and part shocking account of the sometimes barbaric treatment she receives in her place of care at a time when attitudes are very different from today. A compelling read you may well find it emotionally demanding but a positive ending!

Extract
'There's something so ghastly, so animal about them, isn't there, nurse?' He looked down, then up again, and nearly caught my jelly-fish eye. I bulged both my cheeks and let the air in them out through my lips. Saliva splattered down my front. 'Monstrous' the doctor added. 'There's no other way to put it. You can see the mental deficiency at a glance, can't you?' .... 'The outlook is indeed, as our good County Medical Officer concludes' he nodded at the sheaf of papers - 'bleak.'
Parallels
  • Room by Emma Donoghue
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
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Violence
Explicit sexual content