Helen Barrell's Blog

There’s misconceptions floating around regarding hearing aids, so let’s take a look…

It’s not surprising that people who don’t wear hearing aids, and don’t have experience of them, can make assumptions about them. You won’t know otherwise unless you start wearing them yourself, or someone a friend, colleague or family member does. But it takes time to get know what they do based on experience – so to give you a head-start, here’s what hearing aids can and can’t do.

And that’s a...

After being diagnosed, I had to come to terms with the fact that I really couldn’t be in a band anymore, playing guitar and bass and programming drum machines, and writing songs. I just don’t have the hearing to do it anymore, plus there’s the risk of loud noises further damaging my hearing.

But what I can do is write. It doesn’t require any hearing. I just sit down and type, or hold a pen and scratch away at a notepad (and, quite often, end up with the pen leaking all over me).

I joined a...

“OBVIOUSLY!” you may reply, shaking your head in disbelief that anyone would even ask that question. And yet…

My first experience of using the term disabled, and thinking about the ways the word works, came about when, in the early 1990s, my youngest brother was born with Down’s Syndrome (or Down Syndrome as it’s now called, for reasons which I won’t go into here). There is a term used for his condition which isn’t used anymore. So, content warning for outdated term: Mongoloid. Someone wh...

Deaf. D/deaf. Hearing loss. Hearing impaired. Hard of hearing.

We’ve all heard (or read) some or all of these terms, but what do they actually mean?

You might think it’s fairly obvious – that each term means someone who doesn’t have the full range of “normal” hearing – but I’ve found it very difficult, since my diagnosis, getting my head around what each means. There’s a range of hearing loss implied in each term, but since my diagnosis, I’ve described myself as deaf, because it’s ea...

I haven’t updated this blog for an extremely long time as I’ve been working on other projects (check out Curzon/Harkstead), but here I am. As I wrote a long time ago, I’ve been diagnosed with hearing loss – a rare genetic condition called Cookie Bite Hearing Loss. I’m sure it must have a more scientific-sounding name than that, but if it does, I have no idea what it is. Oh, and I have a thoroughly unwelcome side order of tinnitus, too.

Living with hearing loss is a right old pest sometime...

Earlier in October, an auction was held at Lacy Scott & Knight auctioneers in Bury St Edmunds. A descendant of Alfred Swaine Taylor’s passed away at the end of last year and in the attics and cupboards of their home was found Taylor’s papers, diaries, books, letters, photographs, salt prints, and even Taylor’s microscope. In the introduction to Fatal Evidence, I said that no letters and diaries of Taylor’s had survived – little did I know they were in a house in Suffolk! It’s a shame I didn’t...

I was so pleased to be asked to give a talk on Alfred Swaine Taylor and nineteenth-century forensic science at the legendary Highgate Cemetery. It’s where he and his wife Caroline were buried – as well as people Taylor knew. Faraday, who he corresponded with about photography, and even Thomas Hopley, the headmaster who killed Taylor’s nephew.

The chapel is a gorgeous venue, and the audience were great! I’m pleased to say too that the guides who were at the talk were really excited about Taylo...

Alfred Swaine Taylor, one of the most famous forensic scientists of his day, was laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery in north London in 1880.

At my talk, find out more about Taylor – his well-known and obscure cases, and his sidelines in photography and geology. Discover his impact on crime fiction and find out why Golden Age detective fiction author Dorothy L Sayers called his books “The Back Doors to Death.”

Tickets are on sale now at just £8 each (£6 for Highgate Cemetery volunteers).  Doors...

I had absolutely no idea at first that Fatal Evidence appeared in the Guardian’s Best summer books, as picked by writers. I noticed I had a new follower on Twitter, had quick glance on their timeline and saw my name plus a link to the Guardian. Thinking I was either 1. dreaming or 2. misreading something crucial, I followed the link and discovered I wasn’t imagining it after all – there’s Jess Kidd, author of Himself and The Hoarder, recommending my book!

At the risk of this turning into a n...

I’ve been lucky enough to catch Jonathan Goodwin’s one-person shows Murder by Gaslight and Ghost Stories for Christmas. Soon, I’m off to see his show The Singular Exploits of Sherlock Holmes. In Murder by Gaslight, he brought William Palmer (one of Alfred Swaine Taylor’s least favourite murderers) to terrifying, arrogant life, then in the second act transformed into the meak Dr Crippen. It was an incredible performance. So I’m really pleased to bring you an interview with Jonathan to find out...