Diana's Story

by Deric Longden

Overview

'A funny, sad, and above all, enormously inspiring story' Clare Francis, Action for M.E.

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 househusband, nurse and caretaker of the woman he loved.

Diana's Story is told by a writer who can transform the bleakest moment with his warmth and wit. It is an extraordinarily funny account of a marriage based on love and on an exceptional sense of humour.

'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

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149599707
Publisher:	Bibliophile Ltd
Publication date:	03/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	563 KB

About the Author

Deric Longden 1936-2013

Deric Longden was born in Chesterfield in 1936 and married Diana Hill in 1957. They had two children, Sally and Nick. After various jobs he took over a small factory making women's lingerie. He began writing and broadcasting in the 1970s which led him to become a scriptwriter and self-styled comedian’s labourer for, among others, Les Dawson and The Two Ronnies. Before long he was writing regularly for programmes like 'Does He Take Sugar?' and 'Woman’s Hour' and also enjoyed regular broadcasting slots on Radio Derby and Radio Nottingham.
Most of his work was based on his own experience. 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 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. The book hit the Sunday Times bestseller list straight away and won the NCR Book Award. 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 titles Wide-Eyed and Legless and Lost for Words. Both were nominated for multiple BAFTAs and Lost For Words, screened in January 1999, attracted an audience of more than 12 million viewers and won the Emmy for Best Foreign Drama and a BAFTA for Thora Hird as Best Actress. Diana’s Story which was first read on Woman’s Hour by Deric himself was voted by Radio Four listeners as the most popular serial in 50 years of broadcasting.
Deric married the writer Aileen Armitage in 1990 and moved to Huddersfield. Aileen and he were jointly were awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Letters from Huddersfield University in 2004 and Deric also received an Honorary Degree of a Master of Letters from Derby University in 2006. He commented that he often wondered if they had him mixed up with somebody else!
After years of battling cancer he died in June 2013.