The Songaminute Man: How music brought my father home again
Written by Simon McDermott
Narrated by Simon McDermott
4/5
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About this audiobook
The nostalgic memoir of a young man, eldest of fourteen, growing up in 40s Wednesbury. The heartbreaking true account of his son struggling to come to terms with his father’s dementia. A tribute to the unbreakable bond between father and son.
When Simon McDermott first noticed his dad Ted’s sudden flares of temper and fits of forgetfulness, he couldn’t have guessed what lay ahead. Then came the devastating, inevitable diagnosis. As Ted retreated into his own world, Simon and his mum Linda desperately tried to reach him until at last: an idea. Turning the ignition in his mum’s little runaround, Simon hit play on Ted’s favourite song Quando Quando Quando. And like that, they were just two mates driving around Blackburn, singing at the top of their lungs.
Simon filmed their adventure, uploaded the video to YouTube and woke up to messages, tweets and his phone ringing off the hook. Their carpool karaoke had gone viral all the way across the globe.
But a record deal, Pride of Britain Awards, over £130,000 raised for The Alzheimer’s Society and a Top 10 single later, Simon was still losing Ted. That’s when he made a decision. His Dad – the storyteller of his childhood and his best friend – couldn’t tell his own story, so Simon would tell it for him. This is that story.
Set in the heart of the Black Country just before WWII, and written with the help of Ted’s friends and family, The Songaminute Man recalls a boy who became a gutsy and fiercely loyal man. It remembers a childhood of sleeping top-to-toe, rationing, adventure in the woods and making-do-and-mending, a close-knit community, and a life-long passion for music.
Full of poignant moments, the ups and downs of family life and treasured memories, The Songaminute Man is a story of two halves: a celebration of the man Ted was, and a powerful and moving account of caring for a loved one.
Simon McDermott
Simon McDermott is the son of eighty-year-old Teddy McDermott, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2013. The pair's joyful carpool karaoke videos went viral across the globe and raised over £125,000 for the Alzheimer's Society. Simon and Ted won the Pride of Britain Award for raising dementia awareness. They live in the UK.
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Reviews for The Songaminute Man
50 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was good to hear about Ted's life from childhood to adulthood. I had hoped he would include some previously unaired singing by his dad. I was easily able to identify with his story because of our mom's illness this past year.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Easy, fast paced enjoyable read that kept me turning the page. I was quickly drawn in by the characters Kess and Simon. The horrible issues they were facing all through out the book kept the story interesting at every turn. Their back and forth banter and interest in each other made the romance sizzle. I also did love the wizard angle added to the TFLAC series. I haven't read all of the TFLAC books, and just jumped into this Night series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Night Fall" by Cherry Adair had me doing the whole love/hate thing at first. Then once I figured out I needed to suspend reality, I loved it! A really hot read with a really hot wizard.Kess is the PR rep for the current President of the African nation of Mallaruza. She's also kind of keeping a low profile before her upcoming court case back in the States. With Mallaruza's election and her court case coming up in just a few weeks, she's pretty stressed. Then there's the whole deadly disease and warring neighbor nation thing going on. Into this steps a sexy, tall, drink-of-water friend of the current President and all of a sudden Kess' hormones are going crazy!Simon is battling some craziness of his own. Recently his magical has been going on the fritz. So when he decides to take a vacation and visit his old college buddy, the current President of Mallaruza, he really hadn't planned on stepping smack dab into a mystery. When he sets out to discover who and what is behind the mysterious, fatal disease he runs into Kess...and even though she isn't anything like he always imagined his dream woman to be, the more time he spends with her, the more his own image of his dream woman keeps changing ...and she's looking more and more like Kess! Now if he can just keep both of them alive.Suspend reality and you'll enjoy it. Look for normalcy and logic and you'll be disappointed. Read it for the hot wizard and the smoking sex and you'll have a lovely couple of hours of escapism!