‘My fear isn’t past — it’s present’: Aida Austin on life with her daughter’s intractable epilepsy

In Seized, West Cork writer Aida Austin shares a deeply moving memoir about her daughter Iona’s lifelong epilepsy, exploring fear, love and the resilience of family life

Aida Austin’s childhood summers were spent in West Cork, where her parents had a “tiny, ropey old cottage”.

Her dad, a Dubliner, was a teacher, so come end of term, the whole family — Austin has five siblings — would pile into the car and take the Innisfallen ferry from the UK to Cork, happily foregoing London life for summer in the Rebel County.