Before Whispers Become Silence

Before Whispers Become Silence

Andrew Clyde Little

6 X 9 inches, 281 pages
Photos, Text

In the fall of 1953, his mother Trudy committed suicide. In the following year his father Willis died from cancer. In his grief and anger over the untimely loss of both parents, Andrew Clyde Little embarked on a 30 year quest to uncover the truth behind his mother's tragic death.

In this intimate accounting, the author takes us on a tragic journey that begins with his illegitimate grandmother's adoption and subsequent marriage to an abusive Methodist Minister. He documents his mother's psychological problems leading to a nervous breakdown that ended a promising singing career and her treatment by the infamous Montreal psychiatrist Ewen Cameron who used CIA funding to conduct brainwashing experiments on patients without their consent.

Ultimately Little gains insight, understanding and reconciliation through his own successful battle with alcohol, prescription drug addiction and agoraphobia.

Before Whispers Become Silence is a personal and compelling memoir framed within the context of a 25 year TV journalism career covering a turbulent period in the history of Quebec.

Andrew Little

Author

Andrew Clyde Little is a photo-journalist, television producer and university lecturer who lives in Ottawa. After graduation from Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec in l957, Little began a career in journalism that spanned 35 years. He worked for The Sherbrooke Daily Record while attending Bishop's, moved to Canadian Press in Montreal upon graduation, and joined the CBC in l959 as an editor for Radio Canada International. Two years later he transferred to CBC television news where he spent the next 25 years as reporter, editor, producer and on-air host. In l988 he moved to Ottawa, joining On the Road Again as a field producer.

Little has also taught television journalism at Concordia University in Montreal and Carleton University in Ottawa. In l998 he went back to university as a student and in l999 received his M.A. in English from Carleton.