Optimnen: The Official Website of Daniel Tammet
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A rare condition, a difficult life, an incredible story
BORN ON A BLUE DAY by DANIEL TAMMET
A memoir of Asperger's and an extraordinary mind
Hodder & Stoughton Hardback £16.99
Publication date: 13th July 2006
Daniel Tammet is a real-life Rain Man. He has savant syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger's syndrome (high functioning autism). He sees numbers as shapes, colours and textures and can perform extraordinary maths in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. However he cannot drive a car, finds emotions difficult to understand and has trouble telling left from right.
One of fewer than fifty such people living worldwide, Daniel is unique in his ability to articulate his savant experience. Daniel's childhood was full of challenges. For the first couple of years of his life he cried constantly. Then at four he suffered a series of epileptic seizures. At school he was an outsider, unable to mix with the other children. His big, loving family helped and supported him throughout, as did his own determination to overcome his difficulties.
Discovery of high-functioning autism is often delayed and Daniel had no answers to his separateness until the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University eventually diagnosed him at the age of 25.
This is the story of a truly amazing man, who has taught himself 'normal' behaviour that most people are able to take for granted - how to make eye contact, when to laugh at a joke, the intricacies of conversation - and to work around his social and emotional deficits, counting to himself whenever he feels anxious or unhappy. Daniel also explains in remarkable detail the inner workings of his extraordinary mind. DANIEL TAMMET has been working with scientists to understand the implications of his condition for neuroscience and our understanding of consciousness and has been described as autism's 'Rosetta Stone'. Able to lead a fully independent life, he lives with his partner in Kent where he runs his own internet-based teaching business.
For further information please contact Kerry Hood: 020 7873 6173
Hodder & Stoughton Press Office, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
