Earlier this year John Suchet revealed that his beautiful 67-year-old wife Bonnie, the love of his life, is suffering from Dementia. During the past three years he has gone from lover to carer, and he has found his new job exceptionally tough. In this moving and bitterly honest account, the newsreader reveals his loneliness and his despair. For John, it was love at first sight. For many years he had admired Bonnie from afar, hoping and dreaming one day she would feel the same way. Nearly a decade after they first met, their passionate and romantic love affair began. They married in 1985—head over heels in love—and have enjoyed more than 20 years of love and laughter. Both had been married before (she had two children and he had three) but both felt, the day they married, they finally joined their other half. In March 2004, John began to notice strange quirks in Bonnie's behavior. She underwent her first set of neurological tests in March 2005, which brought back no definite results. Then, in February 2006, following a second set of tests, she was diagnosed with Dementia. For three years John personally cared for his beloved wife, keeping her condition secret from all but family and close friends. But in the middle of September this year, more than 26 years after his life with Bonnie began, John made the agonizing decision to move his wife to a full-time care home. Written in passionate and vivid prose that captures both the warmth of the good times and the utter despair of the bad times, John weaves together a series of moving and heartfelt stories. In this combination of present day descriptions of life with Bonnie as her carer and memories of the romantic years they shared together, John gives a unique—and at times stark—insight into the pain of witnessing a loved one lose their memory. This is a story of pain and despair, of anger and guilt. But above all, it is a story of love; a story of devotion, dedication, and the pleasure that those little moments of recognition, those glimmers of joy, can give—even in the hardest times.

My Bonnie: How Dementia Stole the Love of My Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Suchet, John

Arts & Literature

Harpercollins Pub, Ltd.

After a whirlwind romance and a marriage that spanned decades, former face of ITV news, John Suchet, revealed on breakfast television that his beloved wife Bonnie was suffering with dementia, eliciting a huge response. Never had anyone spoken so movingly about dementia, the thief that stole his still youthful wife on the eve of their retirement.
My Bonnie was the number one bestseller in its category, according to the Sunday Times. Finally, the long awaited paperback edition is published, this time with a poignant new epilogue updating us on Bonnie and John’s journey through the illness. The Mail on Sunday calls My Bonnie ‘remarkable’; ‘an act of living resistance’ says the Observer.
My Bonnie is a heart-rending and uplifting read, alternating between Bonnie and John’s intense love story and the progression of the illness. When he first met Bonnie, John was bowled over by her Grace Kelly-esque poise and radiance. An exotic, and married, American beauty, she seemed beyond his reach. He had no idea, however, that his love was returned; even less suspected that the two of them would one day be together, and that for 26 years, every moment would be intense, perfect, and shared. Described by readers as ‘astonishingly honest’ and a ‘personal, beautiful love story’, John’s moving account of how his wife, barely past middle age, was diagnosed out of the blue with dementia, a disease usually associated with the elderly, remains full of joy, despite the tragedy.
Finally united, their marriage was passionate and anyone could see that John admired and adored Bonnie and that she loved him right back. They looked forward to their golden years when they could finally be with each other without distractions or obstacles. But the bewildering and gradual seizure of Bonnie’s mind stole away their hopes of growing old together and made each day a struggle. And yet Bonnie’s sense of humour and natural warmth constantly triumphs.

My Bonnie: How dementia stole the love of my life

Harper

This authoritative and innovative book tells the story of Beethoven's life and works, highlighting some of the most important events by the inclusion of facsimile memorabilia, much of it only available for viewing in museums around Europe. Although not as prolific a composer as Mozart or Haydn, Beethoven's work revealed a passion which rightly led to him being hailed as one of the first romantic composers. "The Treasures of Beethoven" looks at the stories behind the music and celebrates the man who, at one point, became the most famous man in Vienna, with works performed in every concert hall across Europe, and whose compositions have inspired countless generations of musicians since.

The Treasures of Beethoven

Arts & Photography

Music

Andr Deutsch

This beautifully illustrated assessment of Beethoven's tormented but ultimately triumphant life offers an excellent introduction to one of the world's most popular composers. Illuminating the struggles that beset the composer, not least his profound deafness, it shows how he overcame all obstacles to provide his audiences and posterity with some of the most sublime music ever created. Facsimile documents cast additional light on Beethoven's genius, from autographed scores and personal letters to posters and invoices.

The Treasures of Beethoven (Y)

Andre Deutsch

In the concluding volume of this fictional biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, the reader witnesses the great dramas of the composer's final years, as his growing deafness becomes the source for unrelenting misery - and ever more sublime music.

The Last Master (Vol 3)

Little,Brown & Co

Last Master: Passion and Pain - Volume 2

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Little,Brown

When Harry Addison gets the call that his brother, Danny, has been killed in a bus explosion in Italy, he rushes to Rome to investigate and to bring the body home. Danny Addison was a priest serving at the Vatican, and Italian authorities believe he was responsible for the assassination of the Cardinal Vicar of Rome - one of the closest advisors to the Pope. But when Harry recovers the body, it bears only a faint resemblance to Danny. Is his brother still alive? Was he an assassin? Harry must find out - even if the truth is more terrifying than anything he could have ever imagined.

The Last Master: Passion and Glory - Volume 3

Literature & Fiction

Celebrates the brilliance of the composer's life from birth through the famous Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802

Last Master, The: Passion and Anger - Volume 1

A fictional biography about the life of Beethoven, this work tells of his fraught childhood in Bonn, the abortive trip to see Mozart in Vienna, and his early years there as a pupil of Haydn. But just as success and fame began, so too did deafness.

The Last Master (v. 1)

Little,Brown & Company

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Suchet, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Suchet, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Suchet, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

My Bonnie: How Dementia Stole the Love of My Life

My Bonnie: How dementia stole the love of my life

My Bonnie: How Dementia Stole the Love of My Life

The Treasures of Beethoven

The Treasures of Beethoven (Y)

The Last Master (Vol 3)

Last Master: Passion and Pain - Volume 2

The Last Master: Passion and Glory - Volume 3

Last Master, The: Passion and Anger - Volume 1

The Last Master (v. 1)