‘This book left me transformed’ CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
‘Destined to become a modern classic’ ROGER ROBINSON
‘A must-read’ ROSE AYLING-ELLIS
‘Should force readers to pause and reflect’ INDEPENDENT MEMOIR OF THE MONTH
‘This book is an essential education’ SAFIYA SINCLAIR
‘Read this book’ LEMN SISSAY
‘Changed how I will move through the world’ CLINT SMITH
‘A timely book’ GUARDIAN
‘A masterclass’ DAME EVELYN GLENNIE
‘Brilliant’ AMY KEY
‘A gift’ JENN ASHWORTH
‘A beautiful exploration of an interior life’ HANIF ABDURRAQIB

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.

This new paperback edition includes an illustrated BSL alphabet.

Boy Bear cannot hear Dad Bear coming to wake him up in the morning but he can feel the floor vibrate with his heavy footsteps. He can only grasp little bits of what his teacher says to him at school. He cannot catch what his friends are laughing at. And, all the time, Boy Bear keeps hearing the question, “Can Bears ski?” What does it mean? With the support of Dad Bear, Boy Bear visits an audiologist and, eventually, he gets hearing aids. Suddenly, he understands the question everyone has been asking him: “CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Raymond Antrobus, the award-winning poet of The Perseverance, draws on his own experience to show how isolating it can be for a deaf child in a hearing world. But through his lyrical and moving words, matched with Polly’s stunning imagery, he also shows how many ways there are to communicate love. With a solid network, Boy Bear will find his place in the world.

Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2021

‘[Raymond Antrobus] has built another beautiful paper house which you can spend a very long and deeply satisfying time inside.’ Mark Haddon

‘Moving deftly between tenderness and violence, hope and grief, praise and lament, this is a deeply evocative collection that will linger in the reader’s mind.’ Guardian

Raymond Antrobus’s astonishing debut collection, The Perseverance, won both Rathbone Folio Prize and the Ted Hughes Award, amongst many other accolades; the poet’s much anticipated second collection, All The Names Given, continues his essential investigation into language, miscommunication, place, and memory.

Throughout, All The Names Given is punctuated with [Caption Poems] partially inspired by Deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim, which attempt to fill in the silences and transitions between the poems, as well as moments inside and outside of them. Direct, open, formally sophisticated, All The Names Given breaks new ground both in form and content: the result is a timely, humane and tender book from one of the most important young poets of his generation.