A meeting with Rachel Simon

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Rachel Simon and Rab Houston at the National Library of Scotland

With Rachel Simon at the National Library of Scotland

On Tuesday 14 February 2017 I had a long, friendly, and stimulating meeting in Edinburgh with the well-known and successful American novelist Rachel Simon. Rachel is the award-winning author of six books and a nationally-recognized public speaker on issues related to diversity and disability. Her titles include the bestsellers The Story of Beautiful Girl and Riding the Bus with My Sister. Rachel’s work has been adapted for theater, NPR, the Lifetime Channel, and Hallmark Hall of Fame, whose adaptation of Riding the Bus with My Sister starred Rosie O’ Donnell and Andie McDowell, and was directed by Anjelica Huston.

For reasons both personal and creative, Rachel has a keen interest in the history of intellectual disability and other cognitive differences. Thus she first made contact with me a number of years ago in connection with the true-life story of an autistic eighteenth century Scottish landowner, who was the subject of an academic study I co-authored with the cognitive scientist Professor Uta Frith. Published by Blackwell in 2000, it is called Autism in history: The case of Hugh Blair of Borgue.

Rachel and I have corresponded while her work evolved and it was a great pleasure finally to meet her and her husband Hal, a newly retired architect. Rachel has also been a keen follower of the podcast series since its launch in July 2016. She describes the episodes as clear, engaging, balanced, insightful, and humane: respectful to both the subject and the audience.

It is quite unusual for novelists to pick up on serious history (and science) so I was delighted that Rachel had been inspired by our book and further enlightened by the podcasts in honing both her writing and her public engagement about disability and difference.

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