Diana's Story - Tapa blanda

In 1971, Deric Longden's wife Diana fell ill with the mysterious disorder known as ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis). She was unable to move without a wheelchair, and was in almost constant pain. Equally distressing, perhaps, was the fact that every doctor she saw was unable to diagnose what was wrong with her. Deric, devoting more and more time to looking after Diana, watched his business gradually fail, and had to neglect his developing career as a broadcaster. He became house husband, nurse and caretaker of the women he loved. "Diana's Story" is told by a writer who can transform the bleakest moment with his warmth and wit. It is an extraordinary funny account of a marriage based on love and on an exceptional sense of humour.

Deric Longden was born in Chesterfield in 1936 and married Diana Hill in 1957. After various jobs he took over a small factory making women's lingerie, but began writing and broadcasting in the 1970s. The demands made on him by Diana's illness, subsequently believed to be a form of ME, forced him to sell the factory, and since then he has devoted himself to full-time writing, broadcasting, lecturing and after-dinner speaking. Diana's Story, published in 1989, some years after Diana's death, was a bestseller. It was followed by Lost for Words, The Cat Who Came in from the Cold, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Enough to Make a Cat Laugh and A Play On Words. Deric Longden's first two books were adapted for television under the title Wide-Eyed and Legless, and an adaptation of Lost for Words was screened in January 1999, attracting an audience of more than 12 million viewers and winning the Emmy for best foreign drama. He married the writer Aileen Armitage in 1990 and now lives in Huddersfield.