Nula Suchet
Author of ‘The Longest Farewell’
Author of The Longest Farewell, Nula Suchet’s harrowing story of how she lost the man she loved to dementia. The film rights were acquired in 2019 and production begins in 2024.
The Longest Farewell
James, Dementia & Me
When Nula’s husband James, a British documentary filmmaker, becomes forgetful they put it down to the stress of his work. His behavior becomes more erratic and inexplicable, and he is eventually diagnosed as suffering from Picks Disease, an early onset and aggressive form of dementia. Suddenly their lives change from comfortable middle-class creatives through inexplicable behaviour, the shock of diagnosis, coping with the ongoing illness, not coping with the illness, to the indignities of care home life.
This book will break your heart – but also give unexpected hope. Nula writes beautifully and simply about the agony of two happy lives being destroyed by a dementia…but then the slow, halting journey to a second happiness that is also possible.
Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, 2012-2018
As John Suchet’s brother, I am so very happy to endorse this wonderful story, which will bring more necessary awareness for all those living with dementia.
Sir David Suchet CBE
A cry from the heart that is a triumph of love over despair. Fear, guilt and anger are all here, but so too is real compassion and a genuine urge to make a difference.
Alan Titchmarsh MBE
This is the deeply moving story of a very gifted, intelligent, and charismatic man lost to Pick’s disease, a cruel form of dementia. It is also the story of new relationships, a triumph of love over disaster.
Dame Carol Black, President of the Royal College of Physicians 2002-2006.
The Longest Farewell is a profound and important book about dementia told with honesty and love. Nula’s prose hums with rage and yet, against all the odds, ultimately delivers a message of hope for us all.
Pippa Kelly, writer and podcaster ‘Well I know now’.
A wonderfully warm and moving book by a woman who knows only too well the heartbreak that dementia wreaks. Insightful and uplifting.
Mary Nightingale, presenter ITV News.
Nula Suchet’s heart-breaking, yet strangely heart-warming, memoir shows us that love can both endure and renew in the most surprising ways, even in our darkest days.
Alan Gilsenan, film director and writer.
“This book highlights so well the devasting impact that dementia has. This book shares the powerful story of Nula and James – how dementia affects a person both mentally and physically and how it affects a husband and wife’s relationship. It’s a story of love and compassion, and ultimately one of grief and loss too. It’s so important that we share these honest experiences of living with dementia and I’m proud that Nula is an Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society.”
Kate Lee, Chief Executive Officer at Alzheimer’s Society.
Love & Loss
Nula Suchet’s marriage to James Black, a television writer-director with BBC, Granada, and A&E, whom she met on location in Africa, was the happiest time of her life. They had twenty-two blissful years together, before he was diagnosed with Pick’s Disease, a form of rare dementia, in 2004. This dreadful disease led to a slow decline and James’s inevitable death in 2014.
Nula decided to tell the tragic story of how she lost the man she loved to dementia, and in 2019 she published The Longest Farewell. The book chronicles more than a decade of living with a loved one slowly succumbing to dementia, and highlights in vivid detail the lack of support for those having to cope with inexorable loss.
But her story also tells how she was able to move on after James’s death and begin a new life. It is a story of how despair turned into happiness, a story which will inspire anyone who finds themselves trapped in the quagmire of dementia.
James left behind several completed, and some incomplete, film scripts and TV series which Nula plans to bring to fruition.
Arts inspiration
Nula Suchet was born in Dublin and educated in Ireland and the UK. With a background in the arts, she travelled extensively in her thirties – to Africa where she taught art to the children of Soweto, and Australia where she worked with the Aborigines.
In 1990 she was location artist for the A&E television series ‘Early Man’, filmed in Kenya and narrated by Walter Cronkite. Between television assignments she worked as an interior designer in London, Paris, and New York. Her work was published in many notable interior magazines and newspapers.
Charities
Nula, along with her husband John, is now an Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK, and Rare Dementia Support. Together with John, she campaigns vigorously to improve support for those caring for loved ones with dementia.
Nula Suchet’s agent
Nula Suchet’s agent is:
David Foster
talent@dfmanagement.tv
01264 771726
Book Artists
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