Behind the wrought-iron gates of Meirion Court, the country’s elite live out their golden years in unparalleled opulence. Its tagline: “The place to live, if you have to go into care.” For the gifted working-class narrator, becoming its part-owner/ manager has been a lifelong ambition - until a terrifying new virus sweeps the world. Warned by Molly, a retired judge with insider connections, that hospitals will soon start to offload Covid patients, she closes her doors pre-emptively. While elderly mortality rates soar beyond the walls, her residents lead a charmed life, thanks to her leadership, staff selflessness and their early adoption of AI. Inside, champagne flows and the wealthy residents recreate the intellectual ferment and community last seen in Medieval beguinages. Meirion Court was not unique. Three facilities in the UK had a lock-in, but their stories were omitted from Hallett. Like Schindler's List, her novel is a rescue fable. It articulates a vision of loving care that challenges existing practices. It could invigorate the debate about the future of adult social care that Andy Burnham has been calling for.
"At one of the boarding houses where Mammy and I shared a room, someone had left a tourist brochure of a weird and wonderful Welsh seaside village called Port Meirion. The buildings were a multi-coloured jumble of styles - Arts and Crafts, Palladian and Gothic. If our flat became too claustrophobic, Port Meirion became my hidey-hole. I imagined a utopian community with ladies in Regency dresses and gentlemen in top hats peddling around on penny farthings. Ever since, I had been picturing the design of a Regency mansion. Stuccoed exteriors, ironwork balconies: I knew every detail, every fabric, every colour shade, years before we opened."
Spanish troops, brought in to help tackle the spread of coronavirus, discovered elderly people left dead and abandoned in their rooms.
In the UK, private care homes' profit margins soared in the first year of the pandemic, increasing from 4% to 6%, or £194m net.
But Meirion Court had an AI-assisted Action Plan that challenged the NHS/social care link and prioritised compassion over profit.
This deeply charged novella tells a story of unsung altruism, creativity and courage as a semi-fictional rescue fable and asks awkward questions of a unified NHS and adult social care service
Read book excerpts
Get a taste of the novel with selected chapters that show the formulation of a plan to challenge the boundaries of care and kindness.
About the author
Read the Professor's Preface about the anonymous author of Meirion Court and the process that brought its story to life.
Questions and Comments
Meirion Court will be published in the autumn. If you have any comments or questions, please contact me