Breaking silences: The cost and courage of confronting betrayal

Siân Wainwright shares two alarming personal accounts of elderly relatives being financially exploited – one by a trusted neighbour and caregiver, the other by the very professional appointed to protect her interests. These parallel experiences reveal the disturbing vulnerability of aging individuals, even those with mental capacity, and raise troubling questions about who watches the watchers in our elder care systems.

Patricia Campbell discovers unexpected reconciliation while clearing her estranged father's flat after his death. Among the chaotic remnants of an alcoholic's life, she finds a blue recipe book spanning generations—a culinary archive that gradually reveals the humanity of a man she had long dismissed as a monster, prompting her to reconsider her memories of a complicated childhood in Rhodesia and the possibility of forgiveness.

Our agony uncle, neuroscientist and clinical neurologist Dr Ash Ranpura, offers insight on a relationship threatened by habitual small lies, exploring the evolutionary basis for deception and the brain science behind “truthful hyperbole.” His compassionate, science-based approach helps readers understand the biological underpinnings of troubling human behaviours.