Raymond Antrobus: The Quiet Ear

Orion, 2025, hardcover, 224 pages, 13.2 x 21.6 cm

A groundbreaking exploration of deafness by the award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus.

Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds - bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn't believe he was deaf at all.

The Quiet Ear tells the story of Raymond's upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Raymond explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community and shines a light on the decline of deaf education in Britain.

Throughout, Raymond sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures - from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers - the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.

The Quiet Ear is a groundbreaking and much-needed examination of deafness. A memoir, a cultural history, a call to action.