What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life by Pete Wharmby

Filled with warmth, humour and illuminating insight into what it means to be neurodivergent, Pete Wharmby’s book is an invaluable guide for embracing inclusivity and making the world a better place for autistic people to navigate.

It’s time to remake the world – the ground-breaking book on what steps we should all be taking for the autistic people in our lives.

Rule 1: You should never ask for something directly. If you want something, you must imply or hint your need for it … somehow.

The modern world is built for neurotypicals. Needless noise, bright flashing lights, small talk, implication and ‘unwritten rules’; it can be a nightmarish dystopia as far as the autistic population is concerned. In Untypical World, Pete Wharmby lays bare the experience of being ‘different’, explaining with wit and warmth just how exhausting it is to fit into a world not designed for you.

But this book is more than an explanation. After a late-diagnosis and lifetime of ‘masking’, Pete is the perfect interlocutor to explain how our two worlds can meet, and what we can do for the one-in-thirty autistic people in our schools, workplaces and lives. The result: a practical handbook for all of us to make the world a simpler place for autistic people to navigate. A call to arms for anyone who believes in an inclusive society, and wants to be part of the solution.