The art of memoir, the most precious family heirloom

My grandfather, Thomas, whom I know as Tommy, was born in 1930 in the village of Lisburn, Northern Ireland. Now in the clutches of dementia, Tommy has little to say, but before his memory and words deserted him, he was full of tales of his homeland; the steamy, month-long journey to Australia by boat; his mother Maggie, a ‘determined, little roly-poly woman’; his childhood in the chaos of World War II; and his career in Australia as a journalist and news editor.

For a long time, Tommy hid his dementia well; but perhaps deep down he had an inkling that his stories were