Elisa Segrave

No pains spared

Matthew: A Memoir, by Anne Crosby

issue 21 February 2009

Matthew, the author’s son, and the subject of this memoir, had Downs Syndrome, but I should state at once that the book is much more than a guide for parents, or carers, of such children. It stands on its own as a work of literature and should win the PEN/Ackerley prize for memoir and autobiography.

The author, in her poised, sometimes old-fashioned prose, beguiles the reader. As a little girl, she befriended a neighbour’s child whom she first saw through the hedge:

Large and silent … she wore a bow in her hair and usually carried a doll in her arms. Her smile melted my heart, and though I could not understand the reason for this, it sometimes brought tears to my eyes.

Later, married, but still childless — her first baby died — Crosby is similarly touched by the son of a Hammersmith vegetable vendor whom she sees collecting coins, calling: ‘Money for mongols like me.

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