Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of seven. He discovered he had missing sounds - bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. His teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some friends didn't believe he was deaf at all.
Moving from London to Jamaica and the US, The Quiet Ear tells the story of Raymond's upbringing to an English mother and Jamaican father, his first experience using hearing aids, his troubled adolescence as he navigated his deaf identity, and the parallel mainstream and deaf education systems. It also explores how masculinity and race complicate the shame of miscommunication, his formative introduction to literature as a way to connect to the world, and how the deaf body is 'performed'.
Throughout, Raymond sets his remarkable story alongside those of D/deaf cultural figures, historic and contemporary, the famous and under-recognised - including the painter and silent film actor Granville Redmond, the poet David Wright, performer Johnnie Ray and Welsh poet Dorothy Miles. The models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.
In The Quiet Ear Raymond Antrobus uses life writing, criticism, biography, and a poet's sense of images that bind and unbind argument, to create a groundbreaking and daring examination of deafness.
A groundbreaking exploration of deafness by the award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus.
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A memoir. A cultural history. A call to action.
'Destined to become a modern classic' ROGER ROBINSON
'A book that changed how I will move through the world' CLINT SMITH
'Brilliant' SEAN HEWITT
'A marvel' ILYA KAMINSKY
'Expansive, generous and massively tender' HANIF ABDURRAQIB
'Powerful and important' ANDREW LELAND
Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds - bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn't believe he was deaf at all.
The Quiet Ear tells the story of Raymond's upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Raymond explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community and shines a light on the decline of deaf education in Britain.
Throughout, Raymond sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures - from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers - the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.
The Quiet Ear is a groundbreaking and much-needed examination of deafness. A memoir, a cultural history, a call to action.
