Lifelong Reading: New Stories

Remembering and rereading childhood books can provide the means for understanding identity over time. This project invited older adults living with dementia to explore their childhood reading in intimate discussion, and create new narratives in the form of ‘book boxes’. I worked with creative practitioners Gemma Seltzer and Wallis Eates, and the Holybourne Day Centre in Roehampton, and the result was an intense and exciting collaboration. We created a ‘Good Practice Guide’ and I have written up the project and its methodology in a journal article ‘”Life goes through in a book”: a case study of a co-creative narrative enquiry involving older adults living with early-stage dementia’.