The Quiet Ear

A groundbreaking exploration of deafness by the award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus.
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A memoir. A cultural history. A call to action.
'This book left me transformed' CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
'A tender triumph' EMMA WARREN
'Read this book' LEMN SISSAY
'Destined to become a modern classic' ROGER ROBINSON
'Changed how I will move through the world' CLINT SMITH
Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds - bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn't believe he was deaf at all.
The Quiet Ear tells the story of Raymond's upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Raymond explores the shame of miscommunication and the joy of finding community, and shines a light on the decline of deaf education in Britain.
Throughout, Raymond sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures, from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers - the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.
The Quiet Ear is a groundbreaking and much-needed examination of deafness. A memoir, a cultural history, a call to action.
'Brilliant' SEÁN HEWITT
'A marvel' ILYA KAMINSKY
'Expansive, generous and massively tender' HANIF ABDURRAQIB
'Powerful and important' ANDREW LELAND
'Lyrical, moving and powerful' ALICE WONG

Raymond Antrobus is the author of three poetry titles: The Perseverance, All The Names Given and Signs, Music; and two children's books: Can Bears Ski? And Terrible Horses. His work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. In 2019 Raymond became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021. The Quiet Ear is his first work of prose