Michael Simmons, a distinguished international journalist until his retirement in 1997, has age-related hearing loss. Researching for this book, he soon realised it was a very poor relation in the deafness field. Deafness itself has been the subject of many, many books for many generations. Hearing loss, on the other hand, is swept under the carpet, under researched, under-funded while also being routinely exploited by unscrupulous hearing appliance manufacturers. Simmons examines the stigma and the suffering of hearing loss, traces the history of fellow sufferers and the remedies they - and their partners - have tried, and goes on to look at the viable resources and remedies that are available. He finds there is light at the end of the tunnel.