News

By Mary Stuart.
British Institute of Learning Disabilities Publications
ISBN 1 902519 86 8
£18.95

Several books on the history of learning difficulties have appeared over the past 10 years. This is one of the best.

Most readers will know something of the history of institutional care, but how many also know about places like the two convents at the centre of this book, which took in women with learning difficulties at the behest of their families, with none of the trappings of medical certification?

Through skilful weaving of life history testimony from the women who lived in the convents into a socio-historical narrative we learn that the past cannot be simply labelled "bad" and the present "good". Stuart is no defender of the practice of incarcerating women for a lifetime in convents.

But she does show that a simple dichotomy of institutional versus community care is far too simple. The lives of the women with learning difficulties and the nuns who cared for them are portrayed as diverse and complex. It is a unique record of daily life and delightfully illustrated with the women's drawings.

This book is essential reading for anyone who believes that to build a better future we must learn from the past.

Jan Walmsley is dean, school of health and social welfare, Open University.