Information on Loughborough

Critics praise Loughborough author

Posted on 05/07/2007
P. Klein

jonathan taylor

A touching new book by Loughborough University lecturer Jonathan Taylor has been praised by literary critics.

Take Me Home " Parkinsons, My Father, Myself is a heartbreakingly honest memoir about Jonathans experience of caring for his sick father.

One Saturday morning, Jonathans father, just for a moment, couldnt remember his daughters name. Baffled that his mind went blank on something he knew so well, Jonathan now wonders if this was the very first sign of Parkinsons " the illness that would take over the whole familys life.

As a teenager Jonathan felt horribly embarrassed by his fathers behaviour in front of his friends. This grew to worry, pity and then rage as his father became a trembling Parkinsonian who could mistake his son for Humphrey Bogart or more disturbingly, his arch enemy from his years at work.

Jonathan discovered his fathers strange and largely secret past before he became a disappointed headmaster in Stoke-on Trent. In his book he explores the strange twist of fate that gave a man who purposely tried to forget his early life a crippling disease that attacks the memory.

Jonathan Taylor is a lecturer in English and Creative Writing. His stories, articles and plays have been published in various publications and broadcast on the radio. He is co-director of Crystal Clear Creators, a small production company which develops new writing, particularly for radio. He also writes music, which has been performed in concerts across the country.