Reviewed by Eoin Dinneen, Academic Clinical Fellow, University College London Hospital Do No Harm is a remarkably simple book. So much so, The Guardian (the book was short listed for The Guardian ‘First Book Award’) asks, ‘Why has no one ever written a book like this before?’ Each chapter’s starting point is a […]
Category: Book Reviews
The Reading Room: A review of ‘Performance, Madness and Psychiatry’
Performance, Madness and Psychiatry Isolated Acts Edited by Anna Harpin & Juliet Foster Reviewed by Femi Oyebode National Centre for Mental Health 25 Vincent Drive Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2FG Femi_oyebode@msn.com In the spring of 1836, John Clare (1793-1864) visited Peterborough and accompanied Mrs. Marsh, the bishop’s wife, to the theatre to see Merchant […]
The Reading Room: A review of ‘Jo Spence, The Final Project’
Reviewed by Steven Kenny Jo Spence, The Final Project, 1991–92. © The Estate of Jo Spence. Courtesy Richard Saltoun Gallery, London. Jo Spence was a pioneering figure within the realms of photographic discourse, image based political activism and the application of photography as a therapeutic tool. From the early 1970s Spence worked within […]
The Reading Room: A review of Katrina Bramstedt’s ‘Trapped in my own labyrinth: poetry spawned by vertigo’
Reviewed by Giskin Day, Senior Teaching Fellow, Imperial College London Many people, including me until I read Katrina Bramstedt’s book, mistakenly use ‘vertigo’ to describe a fear of heights. The correct term for this is ‘acrophobia’. Vertigo is a serious and disabling symptom of a constellation of inner-ear disorders that describes a disorientating, spinning […]
The Reading Room: A review of Marion Coutts’s ‘The Iceberg’
The Iceberg by Marion Coutts Reviewed by Elizabeth Barry, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick Marion Coutts’s 2014 memoir The Iceberg details the period covering her husband Tom Lubbock’s diagnosis with an aggressive brain tumour, the progress of his condition, and his death. Lubbock, art critic for The Independent newspaper, himself […]
The Reading Room: A review of Emma Healey’s ‘Elizabeth is Missing’
This is the first in a series of three books from the Costa Book Award 2014 category shortlist that will feature in the Reading Room. Elizabeth is Missing was yesterday announced as the First Novel category winner. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey Reviewed by Andrea Capstick, Division of Dementia Studies, University of Bradford One […]
The Reading Room: A review of Matilda Tristram’s ‘Probably Nothing’
Probably Nothing: A diary of not-your-average nine months Matilda Tristram Reviewed by Nicola Streeten Aged 31 and four months pregnant, Matilda Tristram was presented with an agonising dilemma following a diagnosis of stage three bowel cancer. In May 2013, The Guardian newspaper featured an interview with Matilda Tristram (Williams, 2014). It included an […]
The Reading Room
The Bad Doctor A graphic novel by Ian Williams Reviewed by Dr Ian Fussell The Bad Doctor is the debut graphic novel by Ian Williams, himself a pretty good doctor, I reckon, by the insight and humanity shown throughout this book. It was published in June 2014 by Myriad Editions and is a […]
Poetry, Science and Medicine
Through the Door is a collaborative project involving Archives for London and Poet in the City. Six poets have been commissioned to create new works based on archives that include those of St Paul’s Cathedral and The British Library. This week I attended a reading from the selection of poems – The Bone Ship […]
Book Review: Final Chapters: Writings About the End of Life
‘Final Chapters’ is the product of a creative writing competition organised through the Dying Matters Coalition, which was established in 2009 by the National Council for Palliative Care. The book invites 30 contributors to describe their reflections on dying. […]