Sheila Barton

Sheila Barton has combined a successful professional career with bringing up and caring for her severely autistic son. After earning a Cambridge first, Sheila worked as a teacher, lecturer, social worker and manager in the charity sector. She has written a number of articles about autism and disability equality for the national press and is a lively and experienced public speaker. 

LIVING WITH JONATHAN: LESSONS IN LIFE, LOVE AND AUTISM (Watkins, 2012) is a heartrending memoir of a family’s journey into autism, beginning in darkness and fear and moving to the triumph of love and acceptance. It is a powerful plea for respecting and celebrating difference. Sheila is a committed and impassioned believer in our need to accept and understand human difference in all forms and a determined advocate of the visibility and social participation of disabled people. Not only is this their vital need and human right, it is also a profound social good. A society that comprehends and integrates all its members, irrespective of disability, is a better and richer place for all of us. Her book is a powerful manifesto for that conviction.

Sheila also writes murder mysteries, for which she is represented by Keane Kataria.

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'This is a book we all should read. A remarkable human story. A remarkable piece of writing.' Jon Snow

‘A moving, enthralling personal account of life with an autistic son, unflinching in its portrayal of the power autism exerts’ Charlotte Moore, author of George & Sam