Bedside Reading

Send us a textWelcome to season 10 of Bedside Reading and what a series I've got lined up for you this time around! I am delighted to be launching today with two very special guests, Debbie Hicks and Gemma Jolly from The Reading Agency.The Reading Agency is an absolutely wonderful charity and their Reading Well "Books on Prescription" scheme is absolutely fantastic. If you don't know about it already, there's plenty in the show notes to tell you about it and we will be talking about it during today's episode. https://readingagency.org.uk/We are here today to talk about three different and absolutely brilliant books that the Reading Agency recommend on their Reading Well scheme. Frankie's World by Aoife Dooley, Slow Puncture, Living Well with Dementia by Pete Berry and Deb Bunt, and Boy with a Topknot by Satnam Sanghera

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Send us a textNina Donovan's brilliant poem Nasty Woman moves me so much every time I hear it, or read it. It's such a joy to welcome Charley to the podcast hereListen to Nina perform her poem here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvN0On85sNQ

Send us a textIn this episode, I'm joined by GP Jo Maher as we delve into Jackie Kay's evocative poem “Three Little Birds” We explore grief, memory, the power of music and the possibility of an earworm from beyond the graveWhether you're familiar with her work or discovering it for the first time, this episode offers a heartfelt look at one of Jackie Kay's most moving poems.we mentioned Jo's partner's poetry podcast which you can find here: https://www.chris-jones.org.uk/

Send us a textIt's a real treat to welcome one of my all time medical humanities heroes to the podcast again this week. Sam Guglani is an oncologist, poet and novelist. He is the curator of the incredible Medicine Unboxed, hosting a festival which I've thoroughly enjoyed attending and this wonderful podcast https://soundcloud.com/medicineunboxedSam was generous enough to give up his time to talk about his wonderful novel Histories back in season 2  (listen here:  https://bedsidereading.buzzsprout.com/1880290/episodes/11212760-histories) and it was so lovely to spend time talking with him again, this time about Preparation by Czeslaw Milosz. 

Send us a textI'm not sure I can say I have a favourite poet but if I were forced to choose the incredible Hollie McNish would be up there as a hot favourite.Lizz Lidbury and I are talking about one of our favourite of her poems today Arguing in the Headmaster's Office.   As the mother of teenage girls this one spoke to me (and is one of the only literature sources my older teen and I can both agree on the brilliance of!!)It's clearly best when ready by Hollie herself so here's a link  https://www.tiktok.com/@holliemcnish/video/7246103333604248859Enjoy, we did!!

Send us a textThere is a wonderful recording of James Fenton reading this wonderful poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D3KcWVfQS8 it is well worth listening to.Follow Tom on bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/tpoates.bsky.social

Send us a textWelcome to the third in a short special series of "Bedside Poetry" podcasts.One poem, one guest, one conversation....I'm delighted to welcome psychiatrist and writer Sabina Dosani to explore "Visit to the Vets" by Ilse PedlerListen here to Ilse Pedler reading her poem herself:https://youtu.be/p3LTxg1SnP0?si=bMtri4HsTIAGMKcb

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Send us a textWelcome to the first of a short special series of "Bedside Poetry" podcasts.One poem, one guest, one conversation....I'm delighted to welcome neonatologist and poet Beth Osmond to explore Angel Nafis' poem "Ode to Dalya's Bald Spot"find the poem here:https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/149508/ode-to-dalyas-bald-spot

Send us a textThis is the last episode in season eight of the podcast. What a season we've had, finishing off with discussion of Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy. I'm delighted to welcome Laura Shtaingos to the podcast today. Laura wears a number of hats, mostly working within the perinatal mental health space. And it was really, really good to be talking to her about Claire Kilroy's extraordinary, raw novel. which I think brings up lots of themes very pertinent for anybody who is looking after young parents, parents of small children, and looking after children, recognising that children do not exist in a vacuum.I would say if you are a new parent yourself and really struggling, this book might be a big challenge. It might be one where you really feel seen, heard and normalised or it might be quite traumatic and quite triggering. So I think it needs to come with a bit of a warning, but it was absolutely wonderful to welcome Laura today and really to think about this novel and what we can take away from it.Laura volunteers with https://www.babyumbrella.org.uk/Find Laura here: https://www.westkentcounsellor.co.uk/how-i-work

Send us a textI'm delighted to welcome Abi Lucking, GP and Medical Educator to Bedside Reading today. We are talking about Dirty Laundry by Richard Pink and Roxanne Emery. You may have come across Rich and Rox. They are the couple ADHD_love_ frequently to be found on Instagram and on Facebook and TikTok.  It was really, really good to find that they had written a great book, which is very short, very accessible, very readable, and one of the most compassionate and wise books I've read in the last few months. I really, really enjoyed it, and I've really enjoyed exploring it with Abi: thinking about ADHD, being the partner of somebody with ADHD, supporting colleagues or trainees who are or might have ADHD. It's a really, really good book and I have thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed thinking about it.Abi recommended the book ADHD effect on marriage by Melissa Orlovhttps://adhdmarriage.com/content/adhd-effect-marriage-understand-and-rebuild-your-relationship-six-steps

Send us a textThe Reverend Richard Cole's memoir of grieving for his husband David, The Madness of Grief, is I think one of the most brilliant and moving books on the topic I have ever read. When I started the podcast, I imagined that it wouldn't be long before somebody got in contact and wanted to talk about it. So it's been astonishing that we are almost at the end of season eight before a guest has asked to come and talk about it. And I'm glad I waited because I have loved talking to Lynsey Bennett today and about grief, about complex grief, about communication in and around grief. This is such an accessible, moving and funny book, one which I have recommended to a lot of patients as well as to colleagues and it was really good to have a conversation about it.

Send us a textIt's a really warm welcome back today to Anna Baverstock, a paediatrician from Taunton in Somerset. We are talking today about A Beginner's Guide to Dying by Simon Boas. Don't let the word dying in the title put you off. This is an absolutely wonderful and incredibly uplifting short book. It was written by Simon Boas in the last few months of his life.It is reflections on a life immensely well lived and his reflections on the way to be. How to live life to the full, especially when you know that it's going to be short. It's very moving, it's properly laugh out loud funny and it's taught me and Anna a great deal.Follow Anna on social media here:https://bsky.app/profile/annabav.bsky.socialhttps://www.instagram.com/annadoodleaday/

Send us a textLucy Easthope's book, When the Dust Settles, is quite possibly one of the most astonishing things I have ever read. Having come back to it for today's podcast, I am struck again by the compassionate wisdom with which Lucy writes and how relevant the themes from disaster recovery are to all of us, particularly those of us working in healthcare. It was such a treat to talk to Lucy herself.I think I managed not to be too fan girly during the course of this interview. You can let me know if I succeeded or not. It really is such a treat to welcome her to Bedside Reading, to think about her book When the Dust Settles, and also about her new book Come What May, which is going to be released in the UK in May 2025.Find Lucy on social media here:https://bsky.app/profile/lucygobag.bsky.socialhttps://twitter.com/LucyGoBag

Send us a textToday I am talking to Kas Hawes, a GP in the North of England, about her book, The Heart of the Matter, A Day in the Life of a GP. On the jacket, it is described as "a unique story, the story of a doctor and the many patients she sees every day, a tale of the diversity of life, the uniqueness of individuals and the impact of deprivation on the health of society".  The blurb goes on to say this is a book about "being human, the challenge of being on the front line, trying to heal with kindness whilst fighting in an extra rising tide of need." This is such a good book. I'm a GP. I didn't learn anything new from it, but it wasn't a busman's holiday sort of a book. It really was one that made me think. I'm a little bit jealous actually that I didn't write it myself because Kas really does represent so well the consultations that are going on every day in every health centre. I really love the way that she reflects before and after those incidents with patients and really gives us some insight into the way that GPs think. It's a really good book and I really really enjoy talking to Kas about it.

Send us a textWhat a treat recording this episode was.  Such a privilege to meet one of my medical writing heroes,  Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan to talk about her book, Unheard, The Medical Practice of Silencing. If you haven't read it yet, oh my goodness, I'm actually quite jealous. You're in for a real treat. It's an absolutely wonderful book.I listened to the audiobook and it felt like having Rageshri with me as I was pottering around the house doing my chores and as I was driving to work though it's a very beautiful book in hard copy version as well.  It has been an absolute joy and delight to talk to Rageshri about her really wonderful and very very important book which I think is for everybody.we also mentioned this book and amazing writer: https://wellcomecollection.org/books/divided

Send us a textI was so glad to get to talk to GP Amy Fulton about Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.  This is an astonishingly good dystopian fiction novel, which I thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed. It's unusual to find a novel that really has you gripped, sucked into another world imagining something unimaginable and then brought back to earth again and again and again when you realise that this is fiction and of course this is not happening in Ireland where this book is set but that there is a lot more reality in what Paul Lynch is writing about than we want there to be.Prophet Song is an incredibly, incredibly good book, which has really made me think so much. And it was a real joy to talk to Amy about it and think about some of the themes in there that can really make a difference to us as healthcare professionals.

Send us a textI'd like to dedicate today's episode of Bedside Reading to Corporal Hugh Cunningham of the Royal Engineers.  Hugh died in 2009 as a result of PTSD. And as I read Matthew Green's Aftershock: the Untold Story of Surviving Peace, I thought a lot about him and his family, as well as more widely about other military veterans affected by PTSD. I've really enjoyed my conversation with Manchester Portfolio GP Zalan Alam  today. It is such an important book. I'm not going to lie and say I really enjoyed it. I didn't. I found it an incredibly difficult read. But it is a very, very important book about a subject which we really are not talking enough about.And I really do think this is a book that everybody and anybody who's working anywhere in the health service should be picking upAftershock is a book about PTSD, it's a book about military veterans, about what we are doing and sadly not doing to support them. I recognise that a lot has happened in the 10 years since the book was published so perhaps things are better than they were then. I'm not sure and I don't think we can be complacent and I don't think we can think enough about this incredibly vulnerable group of patients.It's a deservedly emotional and tough read, but we do really need to be thinking about this a lot more and we really need to be doing better.If you want your practice to become a RCGP Veteran Friendly Practice find out more here https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=803It may help to signpost patients to Veteran's Gateway https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/find-support-for-veterans-and-their-familiesZalan also recommends http://www.overcoming.co.uk

Send us a textI love coming back to books I've read in the past that I've half remembered and half forgotten and it's one of those episodes today. I'm delighted to welcome Sarah Marwick to Bedside Reading to talk about Never Split the Difference: negotiating as if your life depended on it by Chris Voss. This is such an accessible brilliant book written by a former FBI hostage negotiator. You may think, what on earth has hostage negotiation got to do with working in the and NHS?  Actually, there are huge numbers of transferable skills and strategies that we can use in our conversations with patients and with colleagues and with managers. And this is just such a great book, so readable, so accessible, and and full of practical tips and the lived experience wisdom.  It was really, really good to explore these with Sarah and think about how we might use them in our professional and social contexts.

Send us a textI'm really pleased to welcome GP, lifestyle medicine expert and GP educator Anish Kotecha to Bedside Reading today. We are talking about a book called Age Proof by Rose Ann Kenny. You may be relieved to discover that when we say the science of aging, we are not talking about the science fiction of anti-aging and we're certainly not talking about chemicals or drugs or modifications of anything other than lifestyle. It was really good to talk to Anish about connection, about intimacy, about the quality of relationships, about purpose, about exercise: things that actually are within our power as healthcare professionals to start exploring with our patients. We need to be thinking about the evidence base behind that and how we communicate it more effectively.Follow Anish on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-kotecha-547a4495

Send us a textHappy New Year listeners! Have you made any New Year's resolutions? Have you decided that 2025 is the year where things are going to be different? Have you been thinking about boundaries? Or about well-being? Or about that hideous word resilience which is so misused by NHS managers and has come to be a bit of a dirty word when actually the concept is a really good one.Today, I'm delighted to be talking to Chrissie Mowbray and Karen Forshaw about their book, How to Rise: a Complete Resilience Manual. This is a really innovative book, which is all about providing us with easily accessible tools to make us better, to be thinking about resilience in a sense of emotional resilience, psychological resilience, physical resilience, relationship resilience, and to try and be better versions of our best selves. It's a really accessible, useful book and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Chrissie and Karen.Find Karen and Chrissie here: https://www.resilientpractice.co.uk/

Send us a textI've got a collaborative Twixtmas special coming up today. I've asked a number of friends of the podcast to tell us about their top read of 2024 and what they're most looking forward to reading in 2025. Thanks for joining me in 2024, and I'm looking forward to sharing plenty more books with you in 2025.Featured today are the voices and choices of:Sabina Dosani https://sabinadosani.com/ Leah Hazard https://www.leahhazard.co.uk/ Derek Ochiai https://twitter.com/DrDerekOchiai Helen Blomfield https://www.helenblomfield.co.uk/Pim Dhahan https://www.linkedin.com/in/pim-dhahan-1a21a5b9/ Nicola Ennis https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicola-ennis-3b5ab1215/ Claire McKie https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-mckie-a54a52234/ Nicola Davis https://bsky.app/profile/drnicoladavis.bsky.social and  https://bsky.app/profile/crxeate.bsky.social Anna Baverstock https://bsky.app/profile/annabav.bsky.social David Hindmarsh https://www.youtube.com/c/GPTemplates Kate Wharton  https://www.instagram.com/katewharton27/?hl=en Dani Hall https://x.com/danihalltweets and https://dontforgetthebubbles.com/The books we recommended are:Brotherless Night by VV GaneshananthanSong of the Whole Wide World by Tamarin NorwoodOrbital by Samantha HarveyIn Memoriam by Alice WynnWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul KalanithiDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverWednesday's Child by Yiyun Li The Trees by Percival EverettMeditations for Mortals by Oliver BurkemanThe Facemaker by Lindsey FitzharrisDivided by Annabel SowemimoHow to Save Babylon by Safiya SinclairUnheard by Rageshri DhairyawanFeel Good Productivity by Ali AbdalYou be Mother by Meg MasonSmall Things Like These by Claire KeeganThe books we are looking forward to are:Heartstopper 6 by Alice OsemanGood Dirt by Charmaine WilkersonIntermezzo by Sally RooneyBook of Dust Trilogy by Philip PullmanThe Hallmarked Man by Robert GalbraithTell me Everything by Elizabeth StroutThe 5th book in Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club SeriesThe Elements of Marie Curie by Dava SobelPoems as Friends by Fiona BennettKokoro by Beth KemptonMicroskills by Adaira Landry and Reesa E Lewiss Your Worry Makes Sense Martin BrunetDream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

Send us a textI imagine there may be lots of listeners who are very familiar with Marion Keyes and the Walsh family so it was a great joy today to be talking to Rosie Shire about the latest in the Walsh family saga, My Favourite Mistake by Marion Keyes. There is some typical Marion Keyes in that you know that nothing really, really bad is ever going to happen, that the plot is going to keep you going as you go along and there's going to be nothing truly miserable.There's quite a lot of depth in this story as we follow Anna, 47, recently split from a long-term relationship, as she moves to small town Ireland from New York. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for a start, a local GP is not going to give her HRT.  Rosie and I had a great conversation  about what it is to be middle aged, about relationships, about menopause, about access to HRT. I really hope you're going to enjoy listening to what we had to say.

Send us a textToday's book is one like nothing else I've ever read. It's a real treat to talk to liaison psychiatrist Amy Gledhill about In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Mercado. This is an extraordinary memoir. It is incredibly beautifully written and it is ostensibly about a controlling and abusive relationship with the complicating factor of being a queer relationship. There's much more to it than that. It is incredibly beautifully written, very very short chapters, so incredibly readable andquick and though deep and one that you might well want to go back to again and again. There is so much learning and reflection in the book and I've really really enjoyed exploring it with Amy.

Send us a textIt's a huge treat today to welcome Chella Quint OBE to Bedside Reading. Chella is a period activist and educator from Sheffield and she is the author of two absolutely wonderful books including Own Your Period: a fact-filled guide to period positivity which I think is quite possibly one of the best non-fiction books for young people that you could ever want to read. It is phenomenal for older people as well and for grown-ups, for doctors, for anybody, definitely definitely one to put on your Christmas list  to give to lots of people. It's a book that debunks so many period myths and answers so many potentially unanswered questions. I had a great conversation with Chella.  Please do follow her period positive  website https://periodpositive.com/ and and her social media: https://www.instagram.com/period_positive/https://twitter.com/PeriodPositivehttps://www.facebook.com/periodpositive/

Send us a textA warm welcome today to former GP and now headache specialist, Dr Janice Heath, who joins me today to talk about The Outrun, Amy Liptrot's memoir of alcoholism, addiction, recovery and living in Orkney. It's a really beautiful book which has been made into a very recent film starring Saoirse Ronan and the storytelling and the imagery in the book are absolutely stunning. (Janice has watched the film. I haven't yet. I've seen the trailers though and actually the images seem just as Amy describes them and in her beautiful, beautiful writing.) There's a lot to think about here in terms of thinking about addiction and recovery:  addiction and the path through from chaos into something manageable. I really enjoyed talking to Janice much in the same way that I really enjoyed the book.

Send us a textIt's a welcome back today to psychiatrist Gill Patterson, who's here to talk about the Scottish Book Trust's Book Week Scotland publication of 2024, which is called Hope. This is a collection of true stories written by people from Scotland. The Scottish Book Trust produce 65,000 free copies of Hope which are available in Scotland or from the Scottish Book Trust website https://shop.scottishbooktrust.com/products/hope-book It was brilliant to talk to Gill both about her own story that is featured in this collection and about what this collection means and why the Scottish Book Trust are such a fabulous organisation.We mentioned some resources around perinatal mental illnessRCGP perinatal toolkit https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=13115&chapterid=606RCPsych https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/mental-illnesses-and-mental-health-problems/post-natal-depression

Send us a textIt's a real joy today to welcome GP Eugenia Lee back to Bedside Reading to talk about Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See, which is a fabulous novel. It's historical fiction based on the true character of Tan Yunxian who was a doctor in 15th century China . She lived to the ripe age of about 92 and published a book of her cases in 1511. That book survived into the current day and Lisa See has picked that up, and what is known of Lady Tan and then created this fabulous historical novel. It's a really, really good read and I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Eugenia about it.

Send us a textIt was a huge honour to get an email from Rachel Zimmerman's publicist asking if I would consider reading a pre-publication copy of her new book, Us After, and to have Rachel on the show. Us After is the astonishing memoir of Rachel and her daughters' lives after the death of her husband Seth by suicide.Before you think this is all going to be very, very depressing, it really isn't. It's an incredibly important and insightful book which Rachel describes as being "a little window for those people who say, 'I can't imagine what it must have been like'" because she wanted to give other people a sense it. There's family life. There are tears. There is the incomprehensible death of her beloved husband and through it so much optimism and hope and a sense of needing to move forwards. I absolutely loved Us, After and I have really, really enjoyed talking to Rachel.

Send us a textWelcome to the first episode of season 8 of Bedside Reading!! I am delighted today to welcome Martin Billington back to Bedside Reading to talk about you don't have to be mad to work here, the memoir of Benji Waterhouse, NHS psychiatrist and stand-up comedian. It was great fun to hear Benji talk about his book and when I saw him live a couple of years ago and and I was really excited when the book came out that I really desperately wanted to read it. It didn't disappoint and it was really interesting to talk to Martin.  We explore the power of humour, the power of black comedy, recognition of the stresses that people, particularly those working in mental health services, are under, and the value and power of storytelling to make sense of what is going on in our lives. It's a brilliant book and I really, really enjoyed talking to Martin about it.Martin has his own podcast "So what happened to us all?" listen here: https://martinbillington1.podbean.com/

Send us a textIt's a rewind episode today. I think lots of people have been watching the incredible season three of Heartstopper on Netflix. If you haven't, you certainly should. If you've not discovered Heartstopper at all, you've got such a treat if you want to binge all three series (or better still to pick up the wonderful graohic novels by Alive Oseman).  I've chosen to bring back an episode, an episode that's actually been one of the most downloaded episodes of Bedside Reading ever,and that is me talking to GP Ellie Corso about one of the Heartstopper associated novellas:  This Winter.  This short and brilliant novella features in series three of Heartstopper as one of the episodes, I think episode five in the current series. It is such a wonderful short novel, there is so much to talk about and I think with all the Heartstopper fever we have around at the moment it's only right to bring it back. Enjoy.

Send us a textA warm welcome today to Rebecca Henleywillis, who describes herself as a "Patchwork GP". Listen on to find out what a patchwork GP is. (spoiler: I love the term and I think I'm going to start using it myself fairly soon.) This is the final episode of season seven of Bedside Reading, and we are talking about Strong Female Character by Fern Brady. This is an astonishing memoir. Fern Brady is a comedian. Many of you may have seen her on Taskmaster. She is articulate. She is funny. She is capable. She is autistic. This book explores her life, some of the challenges she's had, and her late diagnosis of autism. It was really, really good to talk to Rebecca and think particularly about autism in women but also autism as a later life diagnosis and thinking about adjustments, families,  the myriad of ways that we can make things better or worse for people. We also spent some time thinking about autism in healthcare professionals and how easy it is to miss and how important it is to ask the right questions. I've loved revisiting this book and I've thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Rebecca.

Send us a textTrigger warning: baby lossThis episode is especially for baby loss awareness week. Tamarin Norwood's incredible book about her son GabrielIn the Lancet:Wakley Prize Essay in the Lancet (2021)https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02690-8/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02797-5/fulltextAbout the book online:If you want to buy the book: https://theindigopress.com/product/the-song-of-the-whole-wide-world/)(or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Whole-Wide-World-gut-wrenching/dp/191164873X)Essay in the Sunday Times: https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/how-losing-my-baby-changed-my-idea-of-motherhood-r8jvdlcjbEssay in the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/baby-loss-ronaldo-child-grief-b2060596.htmlReviews of the book in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/28/grieve-child-book-tamarin-norwood-memoir-pregnancy-death the TLS: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/in-brief/the-song-of-the-whole-wide-world-tamarin-norwood-book-review-julia-buenoand T&F journal Life Writing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14484528.2024.2384755 The book and other writing-related work in healthcare: THE SONG OF THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD been added to medical and midwifery curricula in the UK (Cambridge University and Warwick Med School) and in Australia (Newcastle School of Nursing and Midwifery), and is now gifted to bereaved families by one baby loss charity (Held In Our Hearts) and was a World Book Day recommendation by Sands, the UK's principal baby loss charity. It is the subject of two case studies exploring the role of literature in compassionate healthcare training, to be presented at the upcoming NHS NES Conference.'FROM THE HEART' NOTELETS are packs of note cards with memory and writing prompts for parents whose baby has sadly died. These were created by Tamarin Norwood and Scottish baby loss charity Held In Our Hearts with HEIC funding, and are now provided for bereaved parents across 5 NHS Boards in Scotland as part of their baby loss support, and are increasingly being taken up by hospitals in England including Great Ormond St Hospital. https://www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2023/march/baby-loss-writing-resources-tamarin-norwood-study/  I proposed these notecards in the following article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14484528.2021.1871705Contact:t.g.norwood@lboro.ac.uk @TamarinNorwood on

Send us a textIt is a great pleasure today to welcome novelist Jane Campbell to Bedside Reading.  Jane is here today to talk about her first novel: Interpretations of Love. Regular listeners may know that I've talked about one of Jane's books before, which is a short story collection called Cat Brushing, which I absolutely loved and it was a treat to be sent a copy of this new book by her publishers with an invitation to talk to Jane herself. Jane was a group analyst and then became a writer in her late 70s, publishing her first book in her 80s and I think she's a real inspiration that it's never too late to start writing but that also to remember that as we interact with people and as we work with them we will collect stories and we will get a better understanding of what a narrative is and different people's perspectives and that probably actually makes people better writers. It's been a real joy talking to Jane and I'm really hoping you're going to enjoy our conversation.

Send us a textA warm welcome back today to Bedside Reading to Catriona Davis. This is Catriona's fourth time on the podcast, and it's a real treat to have her back. We're talking about All My Wild Mothers by Victoria Bennett, which is an absolutely extraordinary memoir. It is a mixture of a book about plants, gardening, and apothecary garden. I hope I've said that right. It's a book about loss, about grief,about social change, about expectations, rural poverty and having a child with a long-term condition. It's not an easy read and some of the themes that Catriona and I talk about today may be triggering for some listeners but I hope you'll enjoy our conversation. It's a book I would never in a million years have picked up had Catriona not suggested it to me but it's definitely one that's made me think and one I've really really enjoyed thinking about.

Send us a textIf I'm a bit overexcitable and squealy today, it's because I'm having a proper fangirl moment talking to Dr Lucy Pollock about her second book, The Golden Rule, Listens in Living from a Doctor of Ageing. Ever since I started this podcast, Lucy has been one of my dream guests, so today really has been a dream come true in that she's very generously given up her time to talk about her wonderful book but also to talk about what it is that she does.  It was such a joy to talk about why it is so important to focus on doing less better. Why it is so important that we really think holistically about people. and why we really need to start having conversations which might seem quite difficult.  we explore those conversations which are absolutely vital and which are so well received by patients, particularly those who are older and those so who know what they want and they don't want and are at risk of being in a system which does things to them for the sake of it rather than because it's the right thing to do.Follow Lucy on Twitter (X) here: https://x.com/lucypgeridocIf you've not discovered Lucy's first book The Book About Getting Older it is absolutely wonderful too, you can listen to an episode of Bedside Reading from March 2024 when I discuss that book with GP Registrar Lauren Wallis here https://bedsidereading.buzzsprout.com/1880290/episodes/14670381-the-book-about-getting-older

Send us a textIt's a first on bedside reading today in that I've got three guests rather than my customary one and occasional two. I am delighted to welcome to the podcast Beth Osmond, Eleanor Holmes and Sarah Raybould, three doctors who are also published poets. We are going to be talking today about Kathryn Bevis's beautiful collection, The Butterfly House, which on the cover is described as "the story of a life before and after a late stage cancer diagnosis". In the podcast today, we've chosen to focus on three of the cancer poems from this beautiful little book.I would like to point out though that there are lots of other poems in the collection which are perhaps less dark and more reflective of Kathryn Bevis's wonder with life, the importance of living and really that theme of living with a long-term condition, recognising cancer as a life-changing and potentially life-limiting condition. but something that people are more and more living with rather than necessarily being cured of or dying from. It's a wonderful collection and it is moving, it is thought-provoking, it is funny. I really enjoyed it and I've really loved my conversation today with Beth, Eleanor and Sarah.If you'd like to follow any of these wonderful poets Find Sarah here:https://www.instagram.com/raybould_sarah/https://underneaththisskin.comFind Beth here:https://twitter.com/bethosmondhttps://www.instagram.com/osmond_beth/Find Eleanor here:https://twitter.com/eliot_northhttps://www.dreleanorholmes.com/and if you'd like to buy a copy of this gorgeous collection please order direct from Seren Books here https://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-butterfly-house/

Send us a textI am so delighted to be talking to Emily Katy, the author of Girl Unmasked: How Uncovering My Autism Saved My Life. I love talking to authors. I'm always fascinated to be talking to authors who are also health professionals. Emily is both: a psychiatric nurse and a writer. I've been following Emily on social media for quite a while, I was really excited when her book came out to see what it was going to be like because I'd read her blog and I'd seen a lot of other articles that she'd written. It was a real joy today to meet her properly and to be talking about her book, why she wrote her book, about her life experiences and thinking a lot about autistic women and autistic girls, why they get missed, why it is important that we think about autism and why the stereotypes that many of us have been brought up on are quite simply wrong and mean that people go without a diagnosis and unnoticed.Follow Emily on Twitter https://twitter.com/ItsEmilyKatyand on instagram https://www.instagram.com/itsemilykatyHer brilliant blog is here: https://www.authenticallyemily.uk/Emily is a trustee of the brilliant charity Autistic Girls Network find them here: https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/

Send us a textI've got two brilliant guests with me to today, Roo Shah and Jens Foell, who have written a phenomenal book called Fighting for the Soul of General Practice: the Aagorithm will see you now. This is a wonderful book, two GPs, one based in London, one based in rural North Wales writing about  patient stories and the values of relational medicine, thinking about what we are at risk of losing as we try wholly appropriately to manage demand, to keep services running when there isn't enough money and there aren't enough staff.But what we're losing by doing it, and whether in fact it's okay to stand up and say, "I don't want to be replaced by a computer". I've long said that the things that are of the most value are those which are not directly measurable and so I absolutely loved Jens and Roo's book.  It's very, very readable and it'll make you think, but it won't hurt your head. It's not difficult. It's not dense text. They are both phenomenal storytellers, and this is really about stories and the value of what lies beneath the iceberg, the tip of the iceberg perhaps being a diagnosis but recognising there is so so much more going on and really what we risk losing if we don't remember that. I love the book and I have really really enjoyed talking to Jens and Roo and I would really strongly encourage you to go and buy yourself a copy of this book as soon as you possibly can.Roo mentions the brilliant short story The Machine Stops  by E M Forster you can read it online here: http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/59/59.pdf

Send us a Text Message.A warm welcome back today to James Thambirajah, who is here to talk to me about a book called Heart, a History by Sandip Jauhar. This is, I will confess, a book that I probably might not have picked up voluntarily but James is very persuasive, and I'm really glad I did pick it up, because once I had  I was absolutely compelled to keep reading.  Sandip Jawa is a wonderful writer. He's a cardiologist based in the USA. And this interweaves stories, stories of people, stories of Sandeep's own life, story of patients, stories of his family, with the history of cardiology. The history of cardiology. I didn't really know a huge amount about the history of cardiology it is just fascinating to realise how far we've come over the last 50 or 100 years. I'm really thinking about the bravery of the people who chose to give up everything to explore what they thought might be going on. We've got stories of young doctors passing wires into their own arms and legs in the earliest angiograms. We've got prototype bypass machines being built. We've got people making cardiac pacemakers in their kitchens. It's absolutely incredible, really, really exciting. And I would say I'm not even particularly interested in cardiology, but this is holistic cardiology. This is the history of medicine with some cardiology and some humanity and thinking about hearts in the sense of the heart and soul of a person. It's a cracking read and I've loved talking to James about it.

Send us a Text Message.It's a warm welcome back to a guest today. I'm delighted to be talking to Susan Matthew about Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. Susan came on the podcast a couple of years ago and I got an email from her out of the blue recently saying, "I've just read this book, it's absolutely brilliant, I think you'd really like it and I really need to talk about it on the podcast" and I was really quite intrigued. I picked it up and it said on the cover that it was a crime novel and my heart slightly sank because I'm not a huge crime fan. But actually, I'm not convinced that this book is a crime novel. It's just a brilliant, brilliant novel with some twists and turns along the way. Maybe that's how you define what crime is.... There are loads of themes in here. It's a great book. Lots and lots of things to think about: adverse childhood experiences, the power of community, the importance of transitional objects, how we learn, whether labels matter. There is so much to talk about and so much to think about, and I really enjoyed talking to Susan.

Send us a Text Message.Regular listeners will know that I love talking to writers and I love poetry. So what a joy it is today to welcome Anna Davidson to Bedside Reading to talk about her debut poetry collection: Poetry for Life and Other Chronic Conditions. Anna's poems are absolutely beautiful. It's a very beautiful little book, it's got a gorgeous cover and the contents, both the poems and the writing around the poems and the sense of why Anna wrote these poems, what they mean for her and what she hopes they might achieve for the world is just fabulous. and If you're thinking of a collection to recommend, I can't really think of anything else that is quite like it.  In terms of thinking about invisible illness, thinking about disability, thinking about recovery, thinking about missing out, some of the psychological effects of living with a physical long-term condition, um It's absolutely unbeatable, certainly something I'm going to be using in my teaching and it's a collection I think I will come back to again and again. Anna recommended https://www.theyogaforlifeproject.co.uk/Link to buy the book from all retailers:https://books2read.com/poetryforlifePoetry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mondayispoetry/Author website:https://therightword.co.uk/Amazon link to buy the book:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poetry-Life-Other-Chronic-Conditions-ebook/dp/B0D5VWQDRK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._vNdz86YT_1x-XcrFRc6ZyigquxkN6XBRpe5__1MlJpj4bmAGtIn0TyJ1PW2nmtuEkubRrff3Z_LLlYIQZV9mtzVNl7OIGC2DLXCPq6LDT2M1AMixviEn5P7a7lTT-7H.8lMSqBB0IJZ5Zl5htpdSWpWVCi0egqDE-_VmL9s5BtU&qid=1722246103&sr=8-1

Send us a Text Message.A warm welcome back to GP, educator and YouTube sensation, Dave Hindmarsh. Today we are going to be talking about Turn the Ship Around, which is a really interesting book about leadership. Don't switch off if you're not interested in leadership, there is so much here that is transferable. And the thing I really enjoyed about To Turn the Ship Around is that it is not a book that is telling you what to do. It is somebody reflecting on their own experiences, somebody thinking about failure, about intelligent failures, thinking about how you can reflect on situations that you have predicted will go one way and that end up going another way.Dave and I explore how you can learn from that and how you can turn quite a dysfunctional disparate organisation into something that really works, an organisation which people are proud to be part of. And I found that really, really compelling from the perspective of being a leader, from the perspective of being a teacher. And also I think from the perspective of being within an organisation, what it is to have a leader-leader model rather than a leader-follower model. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I've really enjoyed exploring it with Dave.Dave an I mentioned some other brilliant resources1. The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters2. The You are Not a Frog podcast https://youarenotafrog.com/3. The Conversational Framework as described by Diana Laurillard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSP2YlgTldcFind Dave's brilliant YouTube channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/GPTemplates

Send us a Text Message.A warm welcome today to podcast legend and all round inspiration Dr Rachel Morris. Rachel is best known for hosting her own phenomenal podcast You Are Not A Frog https://youarenotafrog.com/ which helps people work smarter, beat burnout, think more and overthink less.  Rachel is also a speaker, coach and former GP.Find Rachel's coaching business Wild Monday here: https://www.wildmonday.co.uk/We are talking about Elizabeth is Missing  the wonderful novel by Emma Healey which was also adapted for TV starring Glenda Jackson. Told from the perspective of Maud, an elderly lady who we realise quickly is the ultimate "unreliable narrator" in that she has dementia. Friendship, dementia, dignity, carer stress, pragmatic soliutions all feature as well as this being a brilliant sort of a "whodunnit" (no spoilers in the episode we promise!Rachel recommended Graham Allcott's The Productivity Ninja https://www.grahamallcott.com/books/productivity-ninjaand we also mentioned  Being Mortal  by Atul Gawande https://atulgawande.com/book/being-mortal/

Send us a Text Message.I've got a cracking episode coming up for you today. I'm delighted to be joined by Joe Thomas, a hospitalist, from Buffalo in New York to talk about the Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I loved Abraham Verghese first novel Cutting for Stone more than I can begin to tell you and it's a book that's got a special place in my heart because it was the first book that we read as part of the medical humanities book club and which I set up twelve years ago and which is still running. I knew that Abraham Verghese had a new book out and I sensed it was going to be an absolute cracker but I hadn't got around to reading it and then I had an email from Joe asking had I read it yet and please could he come on and talk about it because he was thinking about it so much. This is a book set in India in the early twentieth century, taking us up through until the later twentieth Century.  There's quite a lot of medicine in the book. Really credible medicine because Abraham Verghese is a wonderful novelist and he's also a doctor. So you don't need to get irritated by the medicine being wrong. There are themes around family, around education,  about history, secrets,  support,  communities, intersectionality, medical negligence the end of an empire. Oh my goodness there is so much in this book and if you pick it up and you think "gosh it's very long", it flies by because it is absolutely absorbing. I loved it so much and I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed talking to Joe today about it.

Send us a Text Message.Today's episode is all about a very short and very powerful novel by Max Porter, Shy. In 122 pages Max Porter inhabits the mind of a very troubled teenage boy called Shy.  Nicola Ennis, my guest, and I both  have quite significant life experiences of working with children and young people think that this is probably the best insight into the mind of a troubled teenage boy that you could possibly wish to have. It is quite dark. It's also funny. It's just an incredible insight and I think there is so much to talk about in terms of how we respond to young people how we respond to young people in distress and what it takes to remain. The grown-up in a situation where a distressed young person is behaving in a way that you wish they weren't and to be honest, they wish they weren't too I really hope you're going to enjoy our conversation today.

Send us a Text Message.A warm welcome back to a previous guest today. It's a real joy to be talking to  Professor Ellie Hothersall-Davis from the University of Dundee. We have come up with today six books which we think would be really, really good as reading material before starting a medical degree.Maybe people listening who have got children or godchildren or nieces or nephews or next door neighbours who are planning to become doctors. Arguably actually perhaps becoming any sort of healthcare professional because I think the themes for all of these books are translatable across healthcare and Ellie and I wanted to think about what we could suggest to people to be reading that aren't textbooks that will give them enjoyment and escapism and help them to promote empathy, to think about things from another perspective, to lose themselves in a book whilst also being able to think more deeply about something they might never previously have considered. We've got six cracking books coming up today and I really hope that you are going to enjoy thinking about them.The books we discussed:A Monster Calls by Patrick NessMiddlemarch by George EliotFlowers for Algernon by Daniel KeyesTale for the Time Being by Ruth OzekiThe Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie HarrisonThe Kite Runner by Khalid HosseiniWe also briefly mentioned the Beekeeper of Alleppo

Send us a Text Message.A warm welcome back today to Victoria Kinkaid who's here to talk about Clytemnestra's bind by Susan C Wilson.  This is a modern retelling of a story from Greek mythology that of Queen Clytemenestra , unwilling wife of Agamemnon.  I really enjoyed my conversation with Victoria.  If you've not come across her before he has been on the podcast before and she was here last year talking about a brilliant nonfiction title Half the Sky. Today we are talking fiction. We are talking Greek Mythology, we are talking about feminism, we are talking about the role of women in health care, we're talking about domestic abuse, we're talking about trauma and PTSD We talk about people pleasers, we talk about boundaries, we talk about so many things. It is a really really good book even for somebody like me who doesn't much like Greek mythology.

It's a warm welcome back today to Lizz Lidbury who joins me to talk about The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr. This is such an accessible brilliant book. It's described in a lot of reviews as being for people who loved Eleanor Oliphant and I admit I did love Eleanor Oliphant but I'm not convinced that it is so similar to Eleanor Oliphant to need to be pigeonholed in that way.Lizz and I have had a really enjoyable time talking about it thinking about the characters some of the wonderful cast within the book. We thought about the difference between listening to an audiobook when the characters have particular voices or are portrayed in particular ways by the narrator. We talk about social isolation. We talk about scaffolding young people. We talk about hopes and aspirations and about biscuits.We also mentioned our love of this facebook Medics book group https://www.facebook.com/groups/135276503690822We recommend the charity Autistic Girls Network which is a wonderful charity and maybe just like the one Elvira finds support from online https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/We talked about the recent meta-analysis of the power of reading fiction to improve empathy which can be found herehttps://kar.kent.ac.uk/105137/1/AcceptedManuscript_260224.pdf

It's a welcome back for my guest this week! I'm delighted to have Jo Maher  GP and active travel enthusiast from Sheffield one the podcast to talk about Selena Goddon's fabulous collection Pessimism is for Lightweights.  Jo and I had a great conversation about how much we love these poems. We talk about activism. We talk about the tension that there sometimes is as a healthcare professional around "are we allowed to be activists" (the answer to that question is very definitely Yes) we talk about whether it is better to seek forgiveness than permission. We talk about using humour. We talk about agency. Talk about the frustrations of the world that we both currently live and practice in and how quiet activism might be the way forwards for people as they are building up their courage muscles.