I wanted more of the graphic techniques on how he boiled up his needles in the Tropics. I wanted more detail on how he felt psychologically when starting up his relationships with the opposite sex, how he approached the issue of diabetes, how he overcame his shame of the disease and what measures he took, if any, to address that small matter of impotence. How did he really feel when he was drinking everyday - was it because of his diabetes or an affect of it?

The book is short enough for those who aren't directly affected by diabetes (like fans of Corris/the general public) to pick up by impulse, and not be bored by a seemingly technical subject matter like diabetes. It's written in Peter Corris's undoubtedly easy to read style. And yes, as I said, it is short. But in our thoroughly fast paced  world, that is a good thing. Fans of Corris's celebrated detective novels will be fascinated by Peter's other life, his diabetic life. Too many diabetics hide their disease! We are out there in the community in many different professions, and I congratulate Peter on publicising this. As the book states, almost one in four Australians have diabetes, 80,000 of these are insulin dependent!

For close friends, carers, family, the medical profession and diabetics themselves,the book may, (as I said before, gloss over a few of the more technical details which could be relevant and educative to us) but this may be just because Peter is used to writing for a mass audience through his detective stories with the famous character Cliff Hardy, the main attraction.  At the very end of Sweet and Sour, Peter tells us that he features Cliff as a diabetic in one of the first stories he wrote titled The Dying Trade as well as more prominently in Cross Off, where Cliff's diabetes (a hypo) crops up at a most inopportune moment! How unusual I might add, speaking from personal experience, of course! (Needless to say, I am off to the bookshop tomorrow to get myself a copy of the first Cliff Hardy novel!)

In Sweet and Sour, Peter states that things have changed quite dramatically in the last couple of decades for the management of diabetes. However, when he says that he hopes that his account may "help some people avoid the mistakes" he made and "tread a more intelligent and responsible path", I have to admit that I believe there are many different types of personalities of diabetics who treat their disease in different ways as best they can, and if that involves a more 'loose' or the opposite, a more 'stringent' control, then so be it. (People will experiment with things no matter what).I agree that there are limits which one must face with this disease, however if you are too stringent and deny yourself those little 'treats' in life, then (as human nature would have it), you are bound to break out one day and rebel!

I think that Peter's early life is indicative of this. Having had diabetes for the last 23 years (and sometimes getting quite frustrated with it), I can certainly relate!  He did the sort of things in his youth that any normal young person would do under the circumstances, (regardless of intelligence or responsibility). To be told as a youngster that you have to inject insulin every day for the rest of your life and test your blood by pricking your fingers (or in Peter's case testing your urine) and to have a lack of education about the complications of diabetes, such as "blindness, amputation and an early death", which Peter alludes to several times in the book, (being quite depressing for a youngster to hear), then the psychological ramifications of insulin dependent diabetes are obvious.

All Peter did was experience life to the full - as stated in Chapter 7 Sex & The Sixties, where he and his girlfriend ate Chinese and he "had high urine sugar tests as a result" but that "he was too happy and foolish to care" (Nothing gets in the way of young love, not even diabetes!) Of course there are boundaries to consider (but in Peter's case were probably overlooked due to his denial of the disease and therefore he was not in a position to access education or any of the developments taking place in the management of the disease at the time).  In Chapter 8 Punishment in the Pacific, he says that (looking back), he "should have located a support group...kept abreast of developments,....I should not have smoked. I should have exercised...kept my alcohol to a safe level..." Whereas young people today have access to diabetes education centres at major public hospitals and/or chat groups/support groups on the Internet to discuss such topics and share ideas.

Even though Peter's account of the first half of his diabetic life was spent "behaving precisely as a diabetic should not" and the second half "behaving as a diabetic should " and that his life "took an upward turn" after this, I still felt that some of these times were the very things that make life a little interesting!!! (For instance, the university parties in the 60's, the living in the Tropics in the 70's, the travel overseas)... In the "Sex in the Sixties" chapter, Peter writes about the university Conferences which were an "excuse to get away from home and to have sex". ... Later in that chapter, he says "there are no excuses for my neglect" but I think it's important not to rap oneself over the knuckles for this. I agree when he adds further, that there are "reasons" for this,neglect and "one of them lies in the very nature of diabetes itself". It is an 'invisible' disease to the general public, and easy to conceal, even if you are not controlled. Unlike schizophrenia or epilepsy, whereby neglect of medication can be quite obvious. Like these conditions, it is up to   diabetics themselves to self medicate, but unlike the others it is easy to let "control" slip due to the fact that we can be healthy in appearance but unaware of what's going on under the surface.

The differences between Peter's less than well controlled life in his youth and the better controlled life later on, is his new found longevity of life and that is "beyond price" he says. It did make me ponder, however, what is Peter's life like now! (at present). I would have liked more detail here (to give more relevance to the world of a diabetic today). What are his blood sugars like now? Does he still drink a bit? What are his insulin doses and diet like now? Does he ever break out? How are his eyes, kidneys and vascular functions? What are his hopes for the future? I feel like comforting newly diagnosed people by saying "yes, you can still have a life! Just know the limits"  Maybe Peter can answer these questions and more in a follow up book - an older Cliff Hardy perhaps,  having come to terms with his disease and his subsequent lifestyle changes...?

In conclusion, I particularly liked the way Peter refers to himself as "a diabetic" throughout the book and is proud of it. I, not unlike the younger Peter, was ashamed of my disease, until recently (when I had to deal with the complications), and I think it helps to not hide it.  At the end of the book, he says, in all honesty, that diabetes is "still a mystery, like life itself" (possibly the reason he likes writing detective stories(?)), and that "it's a nuisance and a challenge, but nothing to be ashamed of" He is so right! Life really is quite sweet and sour isn't it? Well, thank you Peter, for reminding me why I plod along (sometimes in frustration) with this "nuisance" of a disease and for helping me to come to terms with accepting it. I have been in denial for years.

Ah!  There's noting like a good challenge!

More >> Review by Mary Anne Patton