Looking After
  • Published: 27 April 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529151848
  • Imprint: Hutchinson Heinemann
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $49.99

Looking After

A Portrait of My Autistic Brother

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
1 Jul 2025
EBook
27 Mar 2025
Hardback
27 Apr 2025
Pre-order from…
Amazon Booktopia Dymocks QBD Readings Your Bookstore Abbeys Boomerang Find local retailers Find local retailers Collins Fishpond Gleebooks Harry Hartog Kinokuniya Robinsons The Nile Mighty Ape

Writer, psychologist and sister, Caroline Elton tells the life story of her autistic brother, Lionel - the first book to consider autism across a life span, and at the end of life

Meet Lionel, Caroline’s older brother. Born in the late 1940s, when little was known about autism, Lionel was considered a peculiarity. From the beginning, he was a silent child, oblivious to the people around him and intent only on playing with his toy trucks. By the time he turned four, doctors declared him ineducable and advised that he be institutionalised – a shockingly standard practise at the time.

No one could have predicted that Lionel would go onto music college and find his place in the world. With the help of his mother – who refused to send him away – Lionel lived a life that was certainly unusual but never dull. He had perfect pitch, could multiply three-figure numbers in his head, or work out which day of the week you were born on, the instant you told him your birthday.

But when Lionel’s mother dies, and shortly after he is diagnosed with cancer, his two sisters struggle to fill the void – to become Lionel’s caretaker and support him as they had promised their mother. Looking After is both a portrait of one autistic man's remarkable life, and a heart-rending story of how one family learnt to care for each other, to deal with loss and to be by each other’s side at the very end.
  • Published: 27 April 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529151848
  • Imprint: Hutchinson Heinemann
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $49.99
Categories:

About the author

Caroline Elton

Caroline Elton is an occupational psychologist who has spent the last twenty years training and supporting doctors. She received her PhD from University College London's School of Medicine and set up and led the Careers Unit supporting doctors in over seventy hospitals across London.

portrait photo of Caroline Elton

Also by Caroline Elton

Also Human
See all

Praise for Looking After

A beautiful, bracing gem of a book, quite unlike any other family memoir I’ve ever read. Candid and tender in equal measure, incredibly moving but also lucid and life affirming, this is such an important book about familial love, about where and how it meets the imperfect world outside. Gripping too. Even though technically one knows from the outset what is going to happen, I found it hard to put down. By the closing pages, I felt I had grown to love Lionel too and that I would never forget him. Looking After is a triumph.

Polly Morland, author of A FORTUNATE WOMAN

Beautifully written, erudite and important, Dr Caroline Elton writes as a psychologist second, sister first - which is exactly right. Looking After is a love letter to an autistic brother and to family itself, and a reminder of the power of empathy to save lives.

Christie Watson, author of MORAL INJURIES

A sister’s loving tribute and a powerful call for compassionate change

Leah Hazard, author of HARD PUSHED

A book that deserves a wide readership. Lionel’s story sucked me in straight away, and held me captive to the very last page. Wise, compassionate and compellingly told

Monica Ali