‘It’s not easy to stop the tears when you read ‘Diana’s Story.’ Sometimes they are tears of grief, sometimes of laughter. Mostly like much of what’s good about life, they’re both. Chock full of gorgeous, fruity characters, this is a wonderfully rich, life-enchanting read.’ Maureen Lipman (whose late husband, Jack Rosenthal, wrote the screenplay ‘Wide Eyed and Legless’ based on the book)
'A funny, sad, and above all, enormously inspiring story.' Clare Francis, Action for M.E.
'A remarkable book, warm and sad… laced with a lot of humour.’ Sunday Express
‘I’ve been lucky with the women in my life. My mother brought me up to be tough and self-reliant, but at the same time made quite sure she had removed all those stick-out macho edges before she let me loose on the world.
So when I met my first wife, Diana, I was able to delight in her ambition and independence. We were together for twenty seven years, but life became harder for her over the last fifteen as she became more and more ill and paralysed. Diana never received a satisfactory diagnosis in her life. It was the pain and uncertainty of not knowing what was wrong and the endless rounds of visits to hospital and the endless rounds of invasive tests which led nowhere. Diana said about the doctors, ‘I am beginning to feel sorry for them.’ Diana’s life ended in an awful death by accidental drowning in the bath during a blackout.
I never knew about ‘ME’ (myalgic encephalomyelitis) until some time later and when a diagnosis can’t be made with a sufferer, it condemns them to a lifetime of pain and repetitive trials, if only to prove their pain is real and the doctors are wrong.’
Deric Longden
Diana’s Story was made into a BBC TV Drama ‘Wide Eyed and Legless,’ which starred Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Dame Thora Hird.
'A funny, sad, and above all, enormously inspiring story.' Clare Francis, Action for M.E.
'A remarkable book, warm and sad… laced with a lot of humour.’ Sunday Express
‘I’ve been lucky with the women in my life. My mother brought me up to be tough and self-reliant, but at the same time made quite sure she had removed all those stick-out macho edges before she let me loose on the world.
So when I met my first wife, Diana, I was able to delight in her ambition and independence. We were together for twenty seven years, but life became harder for her over the last fifteen as she became more and more ill and paralysed. Diana never received a satisfactory diagnosis in her life. It was the pain and uncertainty of not knowing what was wrong and the endless rounds of visits to hospital and the endless rounds of invasive tests which led nowhere. Diana said about the doctors, ‘I am beginning to feel sorry for them.’ Diana’s life ended in an awful death by accidental drowning in the bath during a blackout.
I never knew about ‘ME’ (myalgic encephalomyelitis) until some time later and when a diagnosis can’t be made with a sufferer, it condemns them to a lifetime of pain and repetitive trials, if only to prove their pain is real and the doctors are wrong.’
Deric Longden
Diana’s Story was made into a BBC TV Drama ‘Wide Eyed and Legless,’ which starred Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Dame Thora Hird.
