Des Kenny spent his early years during the mid-1950s, in Newbridge, county Kildare, Ireland, until a childhood accident was the cause of him losing his eye-sight, leading to total blindness at the age of nine.

Many of the poems in this first collection of verse bring to life for the reader the poet's interpretation of the wrench of pain in separating from his family, and having to leave his home for a residential school for the blind in Dublin. Des Kenny comments –

The pain in some of the poems may read to the reader as being ‘raw’. But they are not sores which didn't heal over the years as I went on to success in my work and happiness in marriage with my family of three daughters and three sons.

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This piece of work built on a survey about loneliness and social isolation among older people in rural North Yorkshire, carried out by North Yorkshire Older People's Partnership Board (NYOPPB) in 2009. 

Stage 1 brought together current knowledge about the extent and nature of loneliness among older people and identified current thinking about what a 'good practice' intervention or service would look like. 

Stage 2: in partnership with NYOPPB and drawing on information from the first stage, we identified the range of statutory and third sector organisations in rural North Yorkshire who could, or should, be able to identify older people at risk of loneliness. 

We conducted a survey of the organisations identified to establish how they currently identify older people at risk of loneliness (if at all) and how they intervene to support these people (if at all). 

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The award-winning 'Talk' portrays a society in which non-disabled people are a pitied minority and disabled people lead full and active lives. A business executive's negative preconceptions of disability are dramatically shattered. 

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