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Beautiful Lives

How We Got Learning Disabilities So Wrong: The startling and rarely told history of learning disabilities

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Beautiful Lives

By: Stephen Unwin
Narrated by: Stephen Unwin
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About this listen

 'This book is both heart-rending and gorgeous. It crosses the line many times but ultimately, it's about love. He teaches us humanity.' MIRIAM MARGOLYES

'Thank you, Joey, for getting your dad off his arse to write this book.' HUGH BONNEVILLE

'A beautiful book - powerful, persuasive, illuminating, moving.' GYLES BRANDRETH

'This is a wonderful and important book. Beautifully written, of course; but full of pain and joy, concern and celebration.' SIMON RUSSELL BEALE

'A powerful, multi-faceted, myth-busting account of the most marginalised and belittled out-group in modern society.' SIMON JARRETT, author of Those They Called Idiots

For much of history, people with learning disabilities have been regarded as unworthy of interest - often seen as a threat to the social order and sometimes dismissed as barely human. While recent years have seen an improvement, learning-disabled people are still treated as fundamentally different.

Beautiful Lives is a personal and pragmatic account, told through the eyes of a father whose son has severe learning disabilities. From early civilisation to the chilling realities of twentieth-century eugenics, this powerful book uncovers a startling and rarely told history - one deeply embedded in the challenges still faced today.

Unwin shapes this history into a powerful story of love, lived experience and the long struggle for a better future.©2025 Stephen Unwin Activism & Social Justice Activists Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Politics & Activism Social Sciences Heartfelt Leadership

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Critic reviews

A beautiful book - powerful, persuasive, illuminating, moving. (Gyles Brandreth, Broadcaster and former Member of Parliament)
Unwin's marvellous, elegant, moving book is a major contribution to both the history and understanding of this thing we call learning disability . . . it is a powerful, multi-faceted, myth-busting account of the most marginalised and belittled group in modern society. (Simon Jarrett, author of THOSE THEY CALLED IDIOTS)
This book is both heartrending and gorgeous. It crosses the line many times but ultimately it's about love. He teaches us humanity. (Miriam Margolyes, actor)
This is a superbly written, even entertaining treatment of a sombre topic - how people with learning disabilities are marginalised and ignored. I could not recommend it more highly. (Jan Walmsley, Visiting Chair of Learning Disability History, Open University)
A profoundly affecting book that also provides a manifesto for the future. No reader will be left unchallenged by this incredible and important book. No reader will be left untouched. (Lucy Easthope, author of WHEN THE DUST SETTLES)
With an astonishing breadth of research and a profoundly personal narrative, Stephen Unwin's book on society's treatment of those living with learning disabilities is revealing, wise, angry and hopeful. Thank you, Joey, for getting your dad off his arse to write this book. (Hugh Bonneville, actor)
This is a must-read for anyone wanting to develop a deeper, more humanistic understanding of this area. (Professor Sara Ryan, author of JUSTICE FOR LAUGHING BOY)
This is a wonderful and important book. Beautifully written, of course; but full of pain and joy, concern and celebration. (Simon Russell Beale, actor)
Beautiful Lives is a book that should be compulsory reading for every politician and every GP. His life and career are about words, but Joey has taught Stephen that there are so many other ways in which to communicate - that a touch, or a look can make words redundant. I hope that Joey's voice, amplified by his father, will be heard and understood. A beautiful life indeed. (Baroness Rosa Monckton, campaigner)
Erudite, wise, and beautifully written; but above all, a labour of love. (Dominic Lawson, journalist)
It's the kind of book I dreamt of having when my son's learning disability and possible autism were mooted when he was just two years old. Beautiful Lives is both scholarly, and personal, erudite and profound, historical and bang up to date. It is not sentimental, rather it's realistic and hopeful in equal measure. Readers will feel safe to explore changing attitudes over time without feeling judged and to re-examine their own attitudes. (Baroness Sheila Hollins, psychiatrist and campaigner)
All stars
Most relevant
The history of society's attitudes to disability is appalling, but this story gives a clear & non-judgemental account. It's a fascinating & informative listen. The personal aspects are moving without being sentimental. The writer explains how he would like to see disabled people & those with learning difficulties portrayed in the media, & this gives a lot of food for thought.

I've learnt so much.

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Beautifully read by the author, this book offers a sort of personal history of learning disabilities (or what everyone outside the uk would call intellectual disabilities). As a father of a child with a severe learning disability the author doesn’t hold back on judging the prejudices that were commonplace in the past. At times I would have liked a little more detail about some of the historical figures that are mentioned in passing. He is on firmer ground charting the advocacy and rights movements of the last 50 years. As someone whose child also has a severe learning disability, I liked the fact the author is not afraid to call out how this group has been excluded even within such movements. The book ends with some insightful remarks about why people with a learning disability represent such a challenge to the values of our modern capitalist society, and some really touching thoughts on how the author’s own life has been enriched immeasurably by his life caring for someone with a learning disability.

Touching and informative

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Powerful and articulate, entirely relatable read for anyone caring for their severely disabled and complex child. I’m left stunned but blessed to have come across it.

Compulsory reading for those sharing ‘beautiful lives’

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An incredibly detailed book - moving & heartfelt, it tells it how it really is through lived experience - the absolute joys but also concerns, at times powerlessness, frustrations , hopes & fears for your loved one’s future , never ending battles with authorities to secure basic human rights. Above all, Stephen Unwin’s love for his son, Joey and compassion for all people with learning disabilities shine through .
This is paired with a meticulously, researched comprehensive history of learning disabilities- highlighting the horrific experiences of those who went before which goes a long way to explaining the ,at times, diabolical treatment that continues to this day through to the every day segregation & neglect of duty of care in all sectors that is afforded to pretty much all others .
Everyone should read this to better understand
those who have for so long been judged - and so bloody often misjudged, othered & disregarded.

An important , honest & heartfelt book.

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I came across this by chance. It is so well written and read. I have learned so much reading this. Thank you to the author and his son.

Beautiful book

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