A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Nan

Published in collaboration with Age UK these poems reflect on Oliver’s experience of growing up with his Grandmother Margaret and take us on a journey from their time together in his youth to her later battle with Dementia. Beautiful, often surreal poems of loss, grief and acceptance, written in the landscape of memory.

From Age UK:

There are currently around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK. This is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040. 209,600 will develop dementia this year, that’s one person every three minutes. This poetry collection is about one individual and
one family who have been affected by dementia and every story is different. Age UK Oxfordshire works hard to support every family who feel the impact of this complex disease and we believe that creativity is crucial in supporting increased wellbeing throughout each and every story.

Age UK research shows that creativity in later life has a significant impact on wellbeing, as creative audiences, participants, volunteers and artists. Creativity is shown to not only support people to live well with dementia but as a preventative measure. We are delighted that funds raised from this poetry collection will be donated to support more older people, and those living with dementia, to connect with creativity and experience the power of poetry. We love Oliver’s beautiful poems and are hugely grateful to him for his generous donation as we are for your support.