First impressions only happen once

  Fergus Shanahan   Eyes smiling, face beaming, the porter rose from his stool to greet arrivals at the cancer centre, each nervously hesitant, staying close to a supporting loved one. With the confidence of a man who enjoyed being good at his job, he paused for those needing directions, reassured us that we were […]

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The Reading Room: Reading for Health

    Erika Wright. Reading for Health: Medical Narratives and the Nineteenth-Century Novel (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2016)   Reviewed by Dr Jane Darcy, Department of English, University College London   Erika Wright begins Reading for Health with a timely reminder for Victorianists, quoting Ruskin’s argument about the dangerous temptation of the ‘phenomenon of the sick-room’ for […]

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The Reading Room: Salka Valka

  Salka Valka by Halldór Laxness: she needs to be alone   Reviewed by David S. Baldwin, Professor of Psychiatry Clinical and Experimental Sciences Academic Unit Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, United Kingdom Email:  dsb1@soton.ac.uk   Born in Reykjavík in April 1902, Halldór Guðjónsson (he changed his name to Halldór Kiljan Laxness in 1923) […]

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The Screening Room: a review of the Lebanese film Ghadi

Music overcoming disability –  Ghadi, Lebanon, 2013, directed by Amin Dora Reviewed by Dr Reem Gaafar, a Sudanese doctor, writer, filmmaker and graphic designer   A special screening will take place at the Polish Cultural Centre, 238 King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 0RF, Sapphire Room, 2nd Floor, at 8pm Friday 3rd June 2016. To book […]

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Art, Life and Illness

  David Marron: Encounters   Columba Quigley David Marron, Geras 3, 2013. Image courtesy of the artist and GV Art, London I was fortunate to catch this exhibition, held over the May Bank Holiday weekend at Lumen Studios, The Crypt, St John on Bethnal Green. David Marron is both an artist and a paramedic. The exhibition […]

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The Screening Room: Cannes Film Festival Preview

  Cannes, films and Medicine The forthcoming Cannes Film Festival (11-22nd May 2016) is described by its director Thierry Fremaux as ‘A celebration of cinematographic art’ http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html. If you are lucky enough to be attending the glittering, entertaining and thought-provoking extravaganza, here are five films in the official selection exploring the lives of patients and […]

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