Deric Francis Longden (29 November 1936 – 23 June 2013) was a British writer, autobiographer, reporter, public speaker and broadcaster.
[3] After various jobs he took over a small women's lingerie factory, but began writing and broadcasting in the 1970s for programmes like Does He Take Sugar?
[3] His wife Diana's illness, which left her wheelchair-bound and in almost constant pain, subsequently believed to be a form of chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis, forced him to sell the factory.
[3] In 1984 Longden met the partially-sighted novelist Aileen Armitage at a writers' conference.
At the conference they discussed writing a television script together about disability, with Longden's wife Diana at the heart of the story.
The book describes his life with his rapidly deteriorating wife, who was suffering from an illness that doctors at that time could not understand.
This book focusses on Longden's eccentric mother Annie and her life as an elderly woman living alone, grappling with the effects of strokes and her decline into old age.
He wrote how Thora Hird's performance as his mother was so convincing that his memory ended up confusing the two.
Longden's last book, TailPieces (2012), is a special personal collection of his favourite short stories and articles on cats.