Patient 1

byCharlotte Raven, Edward Wild, Anna Wilson-Jones (Read by), Dr Ed Wild (Read by)

Forgetting and Finding Myself

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Charlotte Raven had never heard of Huntington's Disease when, in her mid-thirties, she discovered that her father was suffering from the illness. Life for her and her young family would never be the same again.

Patient 1 is her brutally candid account of coming to terms with this inherited neurodegenerative disease, which can manifest at any time in life for people who carry the faulty gene. As the illness began to take hold of Raven's body, mind and memory, she began to write. She wrote like her life depended on it - and in many ways she believed it did. Frank and fearless, Patient 1 is an act of self-preservation and a kind of reckoning: with the illness, with the person she once was, with the person she is now.

In an afterword, Raven's doctor Ed Wild - one of the country's leading experts in Huntington's - explains how doctors and patients like Charlotte are working together in the hope of one day eliminating this disease altogether.

Honest, intelligent and unsentimental, Patient 1 is a startling self-portrait written with wit and vulnerability, and a unique testament to the power of hope in the face of illness.

Insightful, frank and often moving... Though there is an underlying note of deep sadness, more often she writes with humour, a dose of self mockery and no small amount of courage.

Stephanie Merritt, Observer

About Charlotte Raven

Charlotte Raven was a celebrated journalist and writer. Her columns and articles appeared frequently in the Guardian and New Statesman. She was a contributor to the Modern Review, and editor of the relaunched version in 1997. Her memoir, Patient 1, was published in 2021. She died in 2025.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • ISBN: 9781529193633
  • Length: 345 minutes
  • Price: £13.00
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