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Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving-Bell And The Butterfly

  • The Diving-Bell And The Butterfly

  • Whilst suffering from a condition whereby he was unable to speak and his only movement was the blinking of an eyelid, Jean-Dominique Bauby devised a code for each letter of the alphabet and dictated this book about his experiences and feelings. He died just after it was published. This moving, extraordinary book is read by Richard Derrington.

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a French actor, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again using a system called partner-assisted scanning.

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