Review: Tuberculosis and Disabled Identity in Nineteenth-Century Literature

[This story was first published on The British Society for Literature and Science website. The original post can be read here: bsls.ac.uk/reviews/romantic-and-victorian/alex-tankard-tuberculosis-and-disabled-identity-in-nineteenth-century-literature-invalid-lives.] Alex Tankard, Tuberculosis and Disabled Identity in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Invalid Lives (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2018) ix + 238 pp. £62.99 PDF & EPUB, £79.00 Hb. ISBN 978-3-319-71445-5 Alex Tankard’s Tuberculosis and Disabled Identity in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Invalid […]

A Review of The Way of All Flesh

[This story was published on September 3, 2018, on the BAVS Neo-Victorian blog. Read the original story at victorianist.wordpress.com/2018/09/03/review-of-the-way-of-all-flesh-by-ambrose-perry.] A detailed and often macabre tale blending historical reality with fictional drama, Ambrose Parry’s The Way of All Flesh is set in a evocative rendition of 1840s Edinburgh. The novel follows nineteen year old medical student Will Raven, who […]

Edward King: patient artist

Yesterday, I visited Portsmouth Museum. I grew up in the area and still live nearby, so I’ve spent many an hour meandering through its galleries. After a particularly dreadful mental health dip, my mother (and fellow history/art enthusiast) shepherded me back down to check out the museum’s current temporary exhibition, which focuses on the work […]

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome

[Image: Nameless and Friendless, 1857, Emily Mary Osborn] Hello, friends, Romans, and lovers of the creative, historical, queer, and macabre! Thank you for taking the time to visit my attempted cabinet of curiosities. For anyone who may have stumbled across this blog and might be wondering who I am, my name is Emily, I’m a writer […]

The Lost Histories of Patient Publications

Contact me here Calling all historians, Victorianists, creative types, ex or current service users,  mental health staff, occupational therapists and any interested in history and/or mental health! Do you have a story about patient creativity you’d like to share? I’m currently working on a project investigating the history of mental health with a specific focus […]

Medicine, mortality and music

[This story was published on November 10 on the Sussex Express website. Read the original story at sussexexpress.co.uk/whats-on/music/review-medicine-and-music-make-an-unlikely-but-effective-duo-1-7674014.]   Medicine and Mortality, Ensemble Moliere, Brighton Friends’ Meeting House, November 5 France, 1725. A Monsieur Valancourt has taken ill. The bells of Sainte Genevieve Abbey sound in the Parisian neighbourhood, and, as the patient’s condition worsens, the […]

Tales from the Archive: Chichester and Graylingwell nurses

[This story was published on April 21 in the Chichester Observer. Read the original story at  chichester.co.uk/news/local/nurses-were-named-most-promising-1-7337959.] [All images: West Sussex Record Office archives] It was a proud day for many as nurses from the Chichester and Graylingwell School of Nursing were named as some of the most promising nurses in the country at an […]