The Quiet Ear

From award-winning poet, educator, artist and 2026 Booker Prize judge, a groundbreaking memoir about family, identity, history and language.
'A big-hearted, transformative memoir' New York Times
'A quiet revolution' Irish Times
'Searing . . . often heart-rending' Guardian
Raymond Antrobus was diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds - bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn't believe he was deaf at all.
The Quiet Ear tells his story - from childhood to fatherhood - and the stories of other D/deaf cultural figures, from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers - the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity Antrobus did not have growing up.
Told with the electrifying prose of a poet, this groundbreaking and moving memoir explores family, identity, history and language, and what it means to be in a world saturated with noise.
A TIME BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Should force readers to pause and reflect' Independent
'Wise, intimate and questing' Telegraph
'Read this book' Lemn Sissay
'An essential education' Safiya Sinclair
'Important, honest, eye-opening and beautifully written' Bernardine Evaristo
'A must read' Rose Ayling-Ellis
'A modern classic' Roger Robinson
'Changed the way I will move through the world' Clint Smith

Raymond Antrobus is the author of three poetry titles: The Perseverance, All The Names Given and Signs, Music; and two children's books: Can Bears Ski? And Terrible Horses. His work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. In 2019 Raymond became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021. He has released two spoken word albums with Dame Evelyn Glennie. The Quiet Ear is his first work of prose.