Sound

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Bella Bathurst

Adjoa Andoh

Jo Coombs

Hannah Marshall

Sound by Bella Bathurst: 2. Searching

2. Searching

Sound by Bella Bathurst

BBC Radio 4 - Sound by Bella Bathurst, 2. Searching

As her hearing declines, Bella searches for her place in either the deaf or hearing world.

As her hearing declines, Bella searches for her place in either the deaf or the hearing world. Read by Adjoa Andoh.

Bella Bathurst tries to find her deaf identity. 

Can someone who's losing her hearing at aged 28, ever be part of the deaf-from-birth community? 

And how can she continue to relate to her friends and family if she can't work out what they're saying? 

In 1997, Bella began to go deaf. Within a few months, she had lost half her hearing, and the rest was slipping away. She wasn't just missing punchlines, she was missing most of the conversation - and all of the jokes. For the next 12 years deafness shaped her life.

Sound draws on this experience, exploring the practical and emotional impact of losing your hearing, and what it teaches you about listening and silence, music and noise.

Read by Adjoa Andoh.

Abridged by Jo Coombs.

Producer:  Hannah Marshall

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2017.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Factual

Bella Bathurst explores the practical and emotional impact of losing one's hearing.

Drawing on her own experience, Bella Bathurst explores the practical and emotional impact of losing one's hearing.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sound by Bella Bathurst

2. Searching

Contributors

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4