what kind of brought you to this kind of stage in your life to want to publish a book

So when I was a child, I had always loved storytelling, but it came in the form of while most kids were playing with Lego and Barbies, my best friend and I would write plays for hours and hours and hours and we would perform them for our very patient parents.

I'm pleased to say my writing's got a little better since then.

But it was really, that was kind of where my love of writing began and that led to kind of a lifelong love of theatre.

However, I, my father was a wonderful doctor and my whole life I had always thought I would follow in his footsteps.

And I began doing that.

I worked hard and got into medical school.

you know, having your grandparents close to you, do you have any advice of just how we can take care of them better? How can we get more involved in kind of the elder care of neighbors and family and not really forget the older generation?

people have worked hard all their lives they've contributed to the economy for years and years and they deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect

Absolutely.

And I think there is an invisibility that happens when people move into care that people suddenly, and particularly residents with dementia, can often be really overlooked.

And a lot of assumptions can be made over what someone is or isn't capable of because their diagnosis.

But I don't think we should ever stop trying to connect every resident with things that are meaningful to them or with helping them to to retain a sense of self a sense of purpose and connection we had one gentleman who had dementia and he came in and he used to love drawing and he used to love horses but because he couldn't feed himself anymore it was assumed that he could no longer draw but during an art session we put a pencil in his hand and gave him some paper and he drew the most magnificent drawing of a horse that I've ever seen and so that was still in him but because of the assumption that oh he wouldn't be able to do that I think it's the same the same thing as you mentioned Gladys she really she was the cook of the family she loved making cakes for her husband but she was not given any opportunity to cook often when people enter nursing homes they're not even given the chance to be able to connect with something that is so important with their identity And in the story, Gladys's daughter just brings in a mud cake for the husband's birthday.

But Griff sees beyond that and knows how important it is for her to show that love to her husband in that way.

And so despite the fact that she's blind, he helps her to cook this cake.

And it

Mm-hmm.

We were seeing so many lonely older people and the effect that that had not only on their mental health but their physical health as well, and I was so lucky to enjoy a really close relationship with all four of my grandparents, and my great-grandfather lived with us.

And I ended up, yeah, doing public health, and I developed a cooking program for older widowed men, which was a big source of inspiration for the book.

So these men arrived at the program really lonely and isolated.

Some were barely eating or surviving on toast.

And what began as a really practical course became something more profound.

So as the men began to cook, you know, they would share stories of their childhood kitchens and Christmas dinners and recipes their wives used to make.

Mm

So we have When Le- Lemons Give You Life now, and for listeners that maybe haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, can you tell them a little bit about it?

Absolutely.

So it follows a former Michelin star chef, Griff Barlow, who has lost his appetite for life.

He's now living in a nursing home, widowed, depressed, and ready to end things.

But rather than let the beige slop that they serve at the nursing home be his final meal, he breaks into the nursing home kitchen to cook himself one final lemon tart.

The act of cooking stirs a long-dormant joy, and soon he's regularly sneaking in after dark, um, creating dishes for other residents, um, and giving them connection and dignity.

But behind the apron is a lie so big that it could destroy the one thing he has left to protect.

Yeah

And so how did it start? How did the idea for this story start?

So I'm a passionate home cook.

I'm an unapologetic master chef fan.

Food is one of my love languages.

And I also, in my career, one of the, probably one of the most formative experiences was developing a local cooking program for older widowed men.

And it was such an amazing program because not only did it, you know, teach the men how to cook, but it the memories that were evoked, the connections that were made between the residents, food became not just a way of nourishing but it became a way back into the world.

So these guys who were socially isolated began hosting the Sunday family roasts and inviting grandkids over to make cupcakes and things like this and so I love that idea of food being a love language and a way back into the world.

Is that something that you work with or against? Or how does that factor into your writing?

[laughs]

I describe it as a cross between A Man Called Ove and the Disney film Ratatouille.

[laughs]

So it's about a retired Michelin star chef now living in a nursing home who is grumpy, depressed, and ready to take his own life.

Determined that his last meal will not be the beige slop that they serve at the nursing home, he breaks into the nursing home kitchen to cook himself one last lemon tart, and the act of cooking stirs a long-dormant joy.

Soon, he begins sneaking in after dark and cooking for other people and bringing joy and finding his way back into the world one plate at a time.

It is out August 4th.

[clapping]