BOOK REVIEW: FREDDIE THE WEAVER by Mark Frankland

BOOKSHOP WINDOW

FREDDIE THE WEAVER by Mark Frankland, Sinclair-Stevenson 16.99

From the start Mark Frankland sensed that there was something "alien" about his newly adopted brother. Freddie's far away look, his obsession with light switches and his attempts to strangle the family cats didn't exactly make him crazy, but didn't make him normal either. Freddie's mother was no more in a position in 1949 to recognise autism than the doctors from whom she sought help. Drawing on letters, diaries and contemporary writings on disability, Frankland's masterly and thoughtful book succeeds both as a portrait of a family and of an era.