Dearest Brother

Dearest Brother is a gripping memoir that follows the author's quest to re-discover the brother he lost through suicide in 1980. After thirty years of anger and guilt that caused him to suppress and deny his brother and his short life, his journey takes him back into his own shared past of a post-war childhood and boarding school separation from itinerant parents. Then off to Western Australia where his brother spent four formative years at university during the late sixties and early seventies.Eight thousand miles from home with only a fortnightly letter to maintain the family ties, his letters provide a unique narrative as he negotiated a time of cultural and political turbulence where new-found freedoms liberated and confused in equal measure. Sex and drugs and wild dreams of a better future pervade his student life.Next, the inquiry moves back to the UK, where Andrew must excavate his own suppressed memories of a brother whose life had glittered with promise but was now blighted by a growing mental illness."Forty years ago, my brother killed himself. At the time I played the part of a grieving brother, but it was a sham. Just beneath the surface there was a pulse of anger, fed by a sense of guilt which corrupted my memories of him and diminished the last of any brotherly love.It may be late in the day but now I am determined to re-discover my love for the brother I lost and perhaps understand why he ended his life."An excellent book: wonderfully well written, honest and extremely wise." Nick Luxmoore Author: Young People, Death and the Unfairness of Everything. "An extraordinary story, brilliantly told. Blake saw the world in a grain of sand; Bethell finds it in his quest to know his brother".Sandy Balfour. Author: Vulnerable in Hearts. "Everyone who knows of a suicide will find themselves better equipped this remarkably courageous, honest and restorative book" Alison Cobb.