The Empty Nest: Hosted chat with Laura Marney

30 August 2007

Laura wanted to talk to carers of people with learning disabilities who had left or were about to leave the parental home to move into their own home, or into a shared home in the community.

The idea was to find out about the main issues which carers experience when this happens and for Laura to use your experiences and feelings to create a short story, which was intended to act as a set of instructions for care and social workers as well as other parent carers. This would be a work of fiction; no names were used of those who took part.

Laura Marney was born in Glasgow. She is a graduate of the Glasgow University MLitt Creative Writing course where she is now a tutor. Many of Laura Marney's short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies or broadcast on radio. Her first book "No wonder I take a drink" was a surprise bestseller, followed by "Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby" and "Only Strange People Go to Church".

Laura was commissioned to write the piece by Artlink Edinburgh. Copies of ‘This Side of Heaven’ are available from Artlink. Please email info@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk or call 0131 229 3555 for more information. For information on other projects or to read their previous publication 'But' by Anne Donovan, please go to Artlink's website; you can also download 'But' here.

The project is funded by the SAC and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Laura Marney Hosted Chat (100 KB)

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