This book shares openly how dementia affected both of Fiona Phillips’s parents, how she juggled a successful career in broadcasting and journalism with her responsibilities as daughter, wife and mother of two boys, then the gradual personality and cognitive changes she herself began to experience. At first, Fiona and her husband assume they are associated with menopause or Long Covid, before she is eventually diagnosed with early onset dementia. Her husband, Martin, explains how Fiona’s condition has affected him and the family. There is also an interesting chapter at the end which details a Q and A session between Fiona, Martin and the lead of the cognitive disorders service at the National Hospital for Neurology at UCH. This is a “must read” for anyone affected by dementia that could really help so many others.

An honest, moving and quietly powerful account of living with early-onset Alzheimer’s.What struck me most was not just the diagnosis itself, but the relentless emotional stress it brings for Fiona and her husband. You feel the weight of uncertainty in every appointment, every forgotten word, every attempt to stay normal while knowing life has shifted. It captures that anticipatory grief so well, the sense of living in two timelines at once: the present that still functions, and the future that looms.There is no self-pity here. Just courage, love, frustration and fierce honesty. It highlights how deeply this illness affects a marriage and a family, not only practically but psychologically. The strain, the protectiveness, the fear, and the determination to hold on to identity all sit side by side.A deeply human book. Important, brave and written with warmth. Five stars.