A Minor Adjustment Book

Sarah Merriman is a boisterous, affectionate seven-year-old, not afraid to call her father "my lucky man" because he has the good fortune of living and playing with her. He would not disagree with his daughter's assessment. While she does not have a self- confidence problem, she does have Down's syndrome, and this is the story, told principally by her "lucky man", of how he and his wife came to see her as Sarah, their daughter, who happens to have Down's syndrome, rather than a Down's syndrome child, who happens to be their daughter. Andy Merriman co-wrote with his father the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 drama "Minor Adjustment", which related the experiences of a family coming to terms with Amy, a child with Down's syndrome. Amy was played in the production by Sarah. This, in turn is her family's own story. Andy baldly states that when Sarah was born he found himself " ... looking at my daughter, not even a day old, wishing her dead". This is characteristic of the courage of a book that never flinches from confronting the suffocating extremities of emotion experienced by Andy and his wife Ali after Sarah is born, and which makes for uncomfortable reading at times, as it should. That the Merrimans have confronted their own and other people's demons to lead a happy and normal family life is a testament to their love, the support of their loved ones, and the shining strength of Sarah's personality. A Minor Adjustment is a deeply moving, thoughtful book that succeeds in providing a historical, contemporary and personal context to a condition with which we are all familiar, but to which we so often respond in ignorance. Hopefully the Merrimans' story can go some way to correcting that. --David VincentRead More