Bedside Reading

Send us Fan MailA 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 Fan MailIt'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 Fan MailIt'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 Fan MailIt 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 Fan MailWelcome 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 Fan MailIt'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 Fan MailA 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 Fan MailTrigger 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 Twitter/X 

Send us Fan MailIt 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 Fan MailA 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.