One of the world’s most experienced fistula surgeons is illiterate. I found that out when I went to a screening of a short film called Fistula Hospital: Healing and Hope at the Frontline Club in Paddington. Her name is Mamitu Gashe, and she was a patient at the Addis Ababa Fistula hospital. After her operation she worked at the hospital, eventually assisting in operations. Over the years she has continued to learn and operate, now giving master classes to gynaecologists from all over the world.   more…

I headed to the Hunterian Museum in London to see the UK premiere of a film about donating bodies to medical science. It was raining, no red carpets were to be seen, and rather than thin people in high fashion, the only skeletal creatures on show really were skeletons. I wasn’t expecting a great evening, but I was wrong.

The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons is an amazing place. I’ve never seen so many pickled, dissected, flayed, and displayed dead people and animals, and their parts. The setting was appropriate though, given that many of the stars of the film were, well, dead. more…

Eighteen months ago I had my first child, and ever since I’ve loved listening to other people’s birth stories – long, short, blissful, or terrifying – I’m all ears. I got a ticket as soon as I saw the London Film Festival was showing No Woman, No Cry, a 60 minute documentary about maternal health directed by the model Christy Turlington Burns. Did it help that that the film was short and Ms Turlington Burns would be taking part in a panel discussion afterwards? Absolutely - an hour isn’t long however harrowing the subject matter, and I’ve never seen a world famous model in the flesh. more…

I went to the Council of Science Editors conference in Atlanta, which was snazzily entitled “The Changing Climate of Scientific Publishing: The Heat is On.”

Atlanta was indeed hot. I had to get over the guilt of flying to a conference with climate change at its heart, then arriving at a completely air-conditioned hotel, wasting a ton of water because I couldn’t work out how to work the bath and shower, and not being able to eat all the huge portions of food that were available. more…

Last week I went to an interview with a writer who I’d never heard of. And now I can’t stop thinking about her, which of her books I should read, and the link between George Bush and female circumcision. The talk was part of PEN International’s Free the Word! festival at the South Bank in London. The author is Nawal El Saadawi, and she’s 79 with bright white hair, a wicked smile, and eyes that sparkle trouble. more…

Mixing of the senses
Synaesthesia, this “mixing of the senses,” is a difficult thing to describe. I have read David Eagleman’s editorial and an anonymous patient’s and psychiatrist Steve Logdail’s patient’s journey article. I see that having synaesthesia may add colour and depth your writing, if writing is your thing (see below for synaesthesia as a literary device) But I can’t help thinking that words are not enough to give a non-synaesthete an idea of what it’s like to live with the condition. more…