Publisher's Synopsis
Obsessed with music as a child - listening to everything he could lay his hands on, going to gigs, starting a band, and then pursuing a career in music journalism - John Harris had no idea that he was in fact preparing himself for the greatest challenge of his life. But so it transpired. When his son James was born, and three years later diagnosed with autism, music became their main form of communication, a hugely shared passion and - it is no exaggeration to say - the sound that saved them. In this extraordinary memoir, John Harris tells the story of how music has opened up the world to James, one song at a time. It takes us through the travails of raising an autistic child in a prejudiced world and investigates why it is that a large proportion of the million-odd neurodiverse people in the UK have perfect pitch and a particular aptitude for music.