The Lady Magazine

28 October 2016

Dear Readers, By his own admission, the writer Raymond Briggs has mined his childhood memories before – who can forget the tear-jerking When The Wind Blows? And his latest animated film is no different. It’s a tale of two devoted ordinary people, his mother, a lady’s maid, and his dear old dad, a jocular milkman held back by class and circumstance. Our utterly lovely cover star, Brenda Blethyn, plays Raymond’s mother and tells us that she didn’t have to stray too far to get into the role – her own mother had worked her way up from being a scullery maid to a lady’s maid. These days, we tend to think of people ‘in service’ as from the past, but of course what we do know is that more than six million of us employ some kind of domestic help; thankfully, now we just don’t think that they are anything less than our social equals. Increasing numbers of us also employ carers to assist with those in need of extra help, particularly those who have relatives living with dementia. As a world expert on ageing, Sir Muir Gray tells us the prospect of dementia can seem scarier than it is and there is plenty that can be done to manage living with this complex condition, even strategies to help avoid it. For Liz Hodgkinson, the thing she dearly wishes she could avoid is looking after her grandchildren – she has far better things to do. If they didn’t know that before, her children might want to turn to page 20 to read her full hilarious message. Until next week, best wishes Sam Taylor