Notes on Blindness

the long version

In his forties, John Hull, whose vision had been gradually deteriorating since his childhood, lost the remainder of his sight. Recently married, and with a small baby, he had to come to terms with a new world, in which many of the old realities had irrevocably vanished. Instead, there were new truths - some vivid and strange, others heart-breaking. He learnt to 'read' his surroundings from the sound of falling rain, to track time without being able to see either dawn or dusk, and to accept the fact that he will never see his youngest daughter's face. Notes on Blindness, which was the basis for a major TV documentary in 2016, is a lyrical and piercing account of a sense lost - and in that loss, a new life found.