Beautiful Lives

'This book is both heart-rending and gorgeous. It crosses the line many times but ultimately, it's about love. He teaches us humanity.' MIRIAM MARGOLYES

'Thank you, Joey, for getting your dad off his a**e to write this book.' HUGH BONNEVILLE

'A beautiful book - powerful, persuasive, illuminating, moving.' GYLES BRANDRETH

'This is a wonderful and important book. Beautifully written, of course; but full of pain and joy, concern and celebration.' SIMON RUSSELL BEALE

'A powerful, multi-faceted, myth-busting account of the most marginalised and belittled out-group in modern society.' SIMON JARRETT, author of Those They Called Idiots

For much of history, people with learning disabilities have been regarded as unworthy of interest - often seen as a threat to the social order and sometimes dismissed as barely human. While recent years have seen an improvement, learning-disabled people are still treated as fundamentally different.

Beautiful Lives is a personal and pragmatic account, told through the eyes of a father whose son has severe learning disabilities. From early civilisation to the chilling realities of twentieth-century eugenics, this powerful book uncovers a startling and rarely told history - one deeply embedded in the challenges still faced today.

Unwin shapes this history into a powerful story of love, lived experience and the long struggle for a better future.