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text. A future edition of the resource may be improved by
presentation in DVD format alone.
The content of the book is presented with reference to
four strands of storytelling: story themes, story lines, story
skills and story company. In the early sections of the book
the differences between these interrelated strands can be
hard to follow, but as the themes are expanded upon in later
sections their distinctive features become much clearer and
provide a useful framework.
The book is designed to support inclusive storytelling.
The section on recruiting students makes it clear that the
programme is not suitable for people who ‘communicate
mainly using face, vocalisations, body movement’ (p. 131).
However, based on our own experience the materials can be
easily adapted for use with groups where there are mixed
levels of support need. The DVD is particularly useful for
highlighting the development of specific skills within games
and activities. The resource helps people running interactive
storytelling sessions to focus on enabling people with
learning difficulties to generate and lead as well as respond.
This authoritative and comprehensive resource will be of
value to those interested in the development of storytelling
groups across a range of settings.
Anthea Hawke
TLR/SEND, The Children’s Hospital School ,
Great Ormond Street, London, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
Sue Ledger
Social History of Learning Disability Research Group,
The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
Lindy Shufflebotham
Deputy Chief Executive, Yarrow Housing, London, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
Thinking Globally Acting Locally: A PersonalJourney
Peter Mittler, AuthorHouse UK Ltd, Milton Keynes, pp. 436,
ISBN 978-1-4520-4103-2 (sc), 978-1-4520-4104-9 (hc), £13.90.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-3156.2011.00710.x
Peter Mittler is one of the giants of learning disability in the
second half of the twentieth century. For me, starting my
career in learning disability in the 1980s, I became aware of
Mittler through his influential work, ‘People not Patients’
which had an honoured place in the small library of the
School Of Nursing, based on the large old hospital where I
trained. It was one of those books that I confess was more
influential by reputation – this was before the days of
universities for nursing, and we were not encouraged to
read a great deal to get us through our training! Despite the
lack of reading, ideas were discussed and disseminated,
including the view that we needed to treat people with
learning disabilities as individuals with individually tai-
lored programmes of care: as people, not patients! It was
increasingly understood that such individual care was
unlikely to take place in large hospitals such as the one in
which I was training.
Such ideas seem rather obvious now but they certainly did
not at the time. There was both doubt about, and resistance to,
the idea that people could be resettled from the large
hospitals. There were several factors that ensured that the
closure programme took place and among them was the work
of people like Peter Mittler who were able to use a combi-
nation of pragmatism, high principle, collaborative networks,
political acumen and in Peter’s case good quality research, to
make life better for many people with learning disabilities.
Peter Mittler’s autobiography helps to provide some of
the history of the enormous change that took place in
learning disability in the latter part of the twentieth century.
It was for this reason that I looked forward to reading the
book, although I expected to skim the first chapters of early
life that for very obvious reasons usually feature in
autobiographies. However, and to my surprise, it was the
first few chapters that held me spellbound. It is rare to find
such a wonderfully understated page turner.
Peter Mittler was born in Austria in the 1930s and was
8 years old at the outbreak of the Second World War. Peter
is Jewish. Among his early memories was the Anschluss,
when Hitler annexed Austria and German troops marched
through Vienna, which was Peter’s home city. Seen through
the prism of the knowledge of what subsequently happened
to Jewish people, Peter’s reflections of being a child trying
desperately to understand elements of the adult world
around him is truly breathtaking. The childish combination
of naivety, excitement and confusion comes through clearly
as Peter experiences the new regime and then, thankfully in
January 1939, manages to leave Austria on one of the
kindertransport trains heading for the United Kingdom.
Many hundreds of children escaped from Nazi oppression
through such schemes – but the cost was separation from
parents. For many, of course, this separation proved to be
permanent. Fortunately, Peter was reunited with his par-
ents, and this along with other stories of his childhood and
adolescence makes for fascinating reading.
It seems a shame now to skip to Peter’s later adult life, but
it is this aspect that is probably of greatest interest to readers
of BJLD. Following a period in several jobs as a psycholo-
gist, including tales from large institutions and innovative
research projects (all of which contribute to our knowledge
of services and provide a vital record for historians), Peter
took up a post as Director of the Hestor Adrian Research
Centre in Manchester. He describes this phase of his
professional life as the one that brought the greatest degree
ª 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 334–336
Book Reviews 335
British Journal of
Learning DisabilitiesThe Official Journal of the British Institute of Learning Disabilities
of fulfilment and was the high point of his career. What
follows in the book is a discussion of the politics at the
centre and a detailed summary of the research projects
undertaken. Both aspects of this chapter provide a wonder-
ful account of the work of the centre that will be useful to
historians of learning disability. Peter’s time at the Hester
Adrian Research Centre coincided with one of the most
important periods in the development of learning disability
services in the United Kingdom. The inquiry into events at
Ely Hospital was the first of several scandals within the
learning disability hospitals, which was followed by the
1971 White Paper and subsequent policy changes through-
out the seventies. At the time, it was not apparent that this
would lead to the closure of the vast majority of long-stay
hospitals for people with learning disabilities in the United
Kingdom, but that is what happened. It was the work of
Peter Mittler and colleagues that ensured that this took
place and Peter’s contribution is outlined in this book.
Peter was appointed Chair of the National Development
Group when it was set up in 1975 and he writes of the
politics of the group’s formation and later work in a way
that filled in many of the gaps in my knowledge of this
period. Of particular interest to me was the way in which
battles had to be fought with traditional civil service
thinking to ensure that the group was both interdisciplinary
and inclusive of parents of people with learning disabilities.
The inclusion of people with learning disabilities them-
selves in policy formation had to wait until much later
although Peter’s autobiography has a fascinating passage
about the development of self-advocacy. In 1978, he
attended the Vienna Congress of the International League
of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (which,
despite its name, was essentially a group of parent
societies). However, the Vienna Congress was the first in
which people with learning disabilities attended in their
own right. Peter discusses how people with learning
disabilities gradually made their voices heard and eventu-
ally, at the Hamburg conference in 1985 demanded that
they be included as participants in proceedings. Peter’s
account adds to the history of self-advocacy of people with
learning disabilities, knowledge of which is still partial.
Much of the last part of the book reflects the title of thinking
globally. In what has been a very active retirement, Peter
reflects on his work overseas including many parts of the
developing world in which he has acted as consultant and
advisor.
Peter Mittler has had a fascinating life, and I for one am
pleased that he was persuaded to write this book. I
recommend it as both a good read as well as an addition
to the library of the history of learning disabilities in the
twentieth century.
Duncan Mitchell
E-mail: [email protected]
ª 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 334–336
336 Book Reviews
