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After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way.

A profound account of a life changed by deafness.

A story of hearing lost and found

Sound

A book to remind us to treasure the gift of sound.

By the summer of 1998, it had become clear that there was something wrong with my hearing. It didn't happen suddenly but softly, so softly I almost wasn't aware of it happening; sound seemed to have stolen away...

For 12 years, Bella Bathurst was deaf. She missed the punchlines and the jokes, avoided busy restaurants and raucous parties, and grew her hair long to cover hearing aids. But then, 12 years later, pioneering surgery gave her the chance to hear again.

'Sound' is the extraordinary story of Bella's journey into deafness and back to hearing. Mixing memoir with interviews with soldiers, sign language experts, musicians and mental health workers, Bella explores what it means to live with and without sound, and in the process uncovers a hidden world of sense and connection.

If sight gives us the world, then hearing (or our ability to listen) gives us each other. Warm, wry and honest, this is a story not just for the one in six of us with hearing loss, but for everyone who ever listened.

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