One of my first memories is of a ceiling

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The bedroom that was always mine

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One of my first memories is of a ceiling

Oliver Sacks Scientist

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In the earliest years of which I have any recollection, I was in the small room adjacent to my parents’ room, and so if I had a nightmare or whatever, they could hear me or I could... or I could go to them. The ceiling in the room had many strange excrescences and if I stood on the bed I could feel them, and they were very hard. And I gather that this was because my brother, Michael, had occupied this room before me. He was two when the family moved from the East End to North West London. And Michael was not fond of sago and he would take a spoon and he would flick spoonfuls of sago on the ceiling where they would adhere and dry and become as hard as concrete. And I believe that many houses of that era have sago concretions on the ceiling.

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.

Title: One of my first memories is of a ceiling

Listeners: Kate Edgar

Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.

Tags: East End, London

Duration: 1 minute, 6 seconds

Date story recorded: 19-23 September, 2011

Date story went live: 02 October 2012