Bedside Reading

Send us Fan Mail Nina 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 here Listen to Nina perform her poem here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvN0On85sNQ

Send us Fan Mail In 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 grave Whether 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...

Send us Fan Mail It'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/medicineunboxed Sam was generous enough to give up his...

Send us Fan Mail I'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...

Send us Fan Mail There 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 Fan Mail Welcome 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 Pedler Listen here to Ilse Pedler reading her poem herself: https://youtu.be/p3LTxg1SnP0?si=bMtri4HsTIAGMKcb

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Send us Fan Mail Welcome 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 Fan Mail This 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&apo...

Send us Fan Mail I'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...

Send us Fan Mail The 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 e...

Send us Fan Mail It'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 reflect...

Send us Fan Mail Lucy 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 tal...

Send us Fan Mail Today 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 b...

Send us Fan Mail What 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 i...

Send us Fan Mail I 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...

Send us Fan Mail I'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...

Send us Fan Mail I 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 hostag...

Send us Fan Mail I'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 mod...

Send us Fan Mail Happy 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,...

Send us Fan Mail I'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 Dosan...

Send us Fan Mail I 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...

Send us Fan Mail Today'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...

Send us Fan Mail It'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 phe...

Send us Fan Mail A warm welcome today to former GP and now headache specialist, Dr Janice Heath, who joins me today to talk about T he 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...