The truth is in the fiction, says Martin Amis, novelist and essayist. Somethings are just too painful, too awful, or too revealing to write about yourself or your colleagues, but […]
Literature and medicine
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: The future of genetics—how far is too far?
The Doctor’s Book Club Siddhartha Mukherjee—The Gene All is now secure and fast; Not the gods can shake the Past; Flies-to the adamantine door Bolted down forevermore. Ralph Waldo Emerson […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: The other side of research in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Doctor’s Book Club Rebecca Skloot—The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks On 27 August 1963, Emanuel Mandel, the director of medicine at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital (JCDH), told his […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: Medicine, from fiction to today
The Doctor’s Book Club Ben Winters Underground Airlines My country tis of thee, Late land of slavery, Of thee I sing. Land where my father’s pride Slept where my mother […]
Medicine and literature: The 2017 Wellcome Book Prize
The books shortlisted for this year’s Wellcome Book Prize are both challenging and engaging, according to author Val McDermid who chaired the award’s judging panel. Introducing the shortlist, McDermid said, […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: Life between two worlds
The Doctor’s Book Club Viet Thanh Nguyen The Sympathizer The thought, when written down, becomes less oppressive, but some thoughts are like a cancerous tumor: you express is, you excise […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: The trauma of survival
The Doctor’s Book Club Emma Donoghue’s Room And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. —Sylvia Plath “Lady […]
Lesley Henderson and Simon Carter: What can we learn from the doctors of Star Trek in its 50th anniversary year?
You don’t need to be a “Trekkie” to have noticed that 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Events around the world have been organised to celebrate the enduring success […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: Physicians and their pasts
The Doctor’s Book Club Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. -F. Scott Fitzgerald, […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: Drawing a line in research
The Doctor’s Book Club Lily King’s Euphoria The woman is perfected. Her dead Body wears the smile of accomplishment, The illusion of a Greek necessity Flows in the scrolls of […]