Up the Creek Without a Tadpole : Dementia Shatters and Rebuilds the Bond Between a Mother and a Daughter

The letters Gillian Griffith wrote to her elderly, demented mother were never intended to be read - they were simply Gillian's way of dealing with her own anger and guilt towards her high-handed, infuriating and impossibly challenging mother.

To Gillian's own surprise, "as the words bounced back at me off the page, magic happened".

The letters began to morph into a book, and the writing of it gradually released Gillian from her mother's influence.

The result is a powerful, touching, uplifting and often very funny account of one woman's emotional and practical battle with the chaos caused by dementia.

This book (the title comes from a small piece of nonsense spoken by Gillian's mother) brings a new insight into the effects of dementia on those caught up in it.

It will make a valuable and original contribution to the debate on dementia care.