Love and Care by Shaun Deeney BLOG TOUR #LoveAndCare @shaun_deeney @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying.

His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father?

Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?

Love and Care by Shaun Deeney was published in paperback on 9 February 2023 by Octopus Books.

As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today. 

Extract from Love and Care by Shaun Deeney

I hold my mother under each arm as she takes tiny shuffling steps towards the car, and open the passenger door to ease her slowly back onto the seat. I lift her skinny legs one by one into the footwell and make sure her slippered feet are flat on the floor. 

'Where are we going?' she asks, as I lean over to buckle her seatbelt. 

'For a rest,' I say, 'to a nice place. With your own room.'

'Why?'

I can't tell her why. So I lie and say this will only be for a week or two, just to give her a break. 'Like a hotel.'

The care home is a 1930s red-brick building with turrets, no doubt built as a grand home for a wealthy family.  A carer meets us in reception and leads us through to the day room.

 Praise for Love and Care

'An honest and thoughtful memoir. Moving but, ultimately, full of hope. Beautiful.' KATE MOSSE

'Superb. Love & Care is a book about the unbreakable bonds of family, the cruelty of passing time and a love that never dies.' TONY PARSONS

'A beautiful, intimate story of love and understanding - candid and funny. This is a lyrical memoir of hope and forgiveness.' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path 

'A heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and beautifully humane account of loving and caring.' NICCI GERRARD, novelist and author of What Dementia Teaches Us About Love

'An insightful tale of care . . . this book needed to be written.' JO GOOD, BBC Radio London

'A vital subject, a really strong voice and, hurrah, humour makes this absorbing reading.' CAROLINE RAPHAEL, Radio 4's Book at Bedtime

'An eye-opening - and at times jaw dropping - account that will make you weep with its tenderness and compassion . . . A highly readable tale of redemption and a celebration of love's many hues.' PAUL BLEZARD, Love Reading

'Moving' DAILY MAIL

Shaun Deeney is a former journalist and Emmy award-winning film and TV producer. 

He has made current affairs programmes for ITV on social issues, including care. 

He is also the creator of a podcast on caring for his mother called Love and Care. 

Shaun has a degree in English and American Literature from Kent at Canterbury. 

He has two daughters and loves listening to Frank Sinatra. 

For more information visit shaundeeney.com.