Alex James's Blog: AlexJamesNovels Blog - Posts Tagged "chris-packham"

I only had a vague idea who Chris Packham was until I saw the documentary on television, about his having Asperger’s. I thought it was a bold positive statement that instilled confidence in others with the condition, like me. I was lucky enough to receive his memoir as a gift, and I read it with interest.

The first impressions are that we get an insight into Chris Packham's childhood and early adolescence: sights, smells, sensations, and behaviour towards people. His inventiveness and knowledge of the natural world, and at such a young age, is incredible. This unbelievable intelligence and drive continues throughout in the form of themed related memories when he was at different ages. I was more interested in his personality than the natural world, understandably, and many of his definitions went above my head but his behaviour and how he compared with others did not. Many of his difficulties resonated with me and provided me with an enhanced perspective on my own condition, where other people are concerned.

The message I got was that his life was a huge miserable struggle, yet it was also filled with wondrous highs – many that he created. His path to understanding himself took a long time, and most of his memories of note occurred at specific times in his life: when he was at school and when he went to see a psychiatrist.

The descriptions were complex, and weren’t always easy to absorb because of the number of terms, but this is a memoir of somebody interested in the natural world and I respected his style and understood enough to keep wanting to read an extra chapter. I had to look at the paragraphs rather than hear them, which was different.