2. Searching

Bella Bathurst tries to find her deaf identity.

Can someone who's losing her hearing at aged 28, ever be part of the deaf-from-birth community?

And how can she continue to relate to her friends and family if she can't work out what they're saying?

In 1997, Bella began to go deaf. Within a few months, she had lost half her hearing, and the rest was slipping away. She wasn't just missing punchlines, she was missing most of the conversation - and all of the jokes. For the next 12 years deafness shaped her life.

Sound draws on this experience, exploring the practical and emotional impact of losing your hearing, and what it teaches you about listening and silence, music and noise.

Read by Adjoa Andoh.

Abridged by Jo Coombs.

Producer: Hannah Marshall

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2017.