Stories

We tell stories about health and human experience. Our words and pictures make connections, provoke new thinking and share lived experiences.

  • Article

A creative collaboration with compulsion

Discover how artist Liz Atkin has channelled the compulsion to pick her skin into an imaginative outlet for her feelings.

  • Short film

Imagining a more inclusive world

An official diagnosis for ADHD has given artist Carrie Ravenscroft so much more than the medical support she lacked. For the first time, it’s allowed her to see a future for herself as valid member of a diverse community.

Part of Claiming my neurodivergent identity
  • Short film

The power of art

For Carrie Ravenscroft, both the techniques and content of her art are expressions of the workings of her neurodivergent mind.

Part of Claiming my neurodivergent identity
  • Short film

Gender gap

In this artwork, Carrie Ravenscroft considers how her personal struggles with having ADHD relate to the wider challenges of being neurodivergent and female.

Part of Claiming my neurodivergent identity
  • Short film

Loss and grieving

In this artwork Carrie Ravenscroft delves into the complex feelings of grief and loss that were triggered by the death of her aunt during the Covid pandemic.

Part of Claiming my neurodivergent identity

Disability, health and identity

Disabled writers, artists and activists explore subjects ranging from access and assistive tech to the precarity often faced by people with complex health issues.

  • Article

Notes on need

Writing about bodies, and hearing the stories of others’ bodies, Johanna Hedva also heard, over and over, how people blame themselves – and are encouraged to do this – for illness and disability.

Part of Hypochondria
  • Article

Disability in the post-pandemic world

Disabled people have suffered more than most during Covid-19, but there is still a chance to build a kinder society. Dolly Sen explores whether we will come together, or allow more brutal disparities to develop in the worsening recession.

  • Article

How my wheelchair changed my life

A young woman diagnosed with a disabling condition found her world shrank without the mobility aids she needed to get outside. Finally facing the stigma around using a wheelchair transformed her everyday life.

Part of Being patient
  • Article

“Everybody desires a degree of independence”

I’m 26, and building a network of friends and my career. Unlike most people my age, I’m entirely dependent on carers to achieve this.

Part of In my own words
  • Article

A walk through other people’s expectations

The steep path isn’t the only thing Caroline Butterwick has to navigate on her Lakeland hike. Always aware of other people’s expectations, she continually monitors how her disability might seem to strangers.

  • Article

Why gene editing can never eliminate disability

In a world where DNA testing and gene editing offer ways to eliminate certain disabilities, Jaipreet Virdi explores a more accepting and inclusive approach.

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Comics

Explore new perspectives on bodies, brains and health with our guest comic artists.

Books

We publish thought-provoking books exploring health and human experiences.

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  • Short film

Chaos within boundaries

How making a series of paintings helped Carrie Ravenscroft process and map her journey towards a neurodivergent identity.

Part of Claiming my neurodivergent identity
  • Book extract

Autism and the ache of loneliness

Explore the thoughts of an autistic loneliness researcher in this quietly expressive extract from Daniel Tammet’s book ‘Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum’.

Part of Inside our books
  • Article

The wishing-tree of Loch Maree

So many pilgrims have visited a tiny loch island in Scotland that the site of their devotions, a fragile and crumbling tree, has collapsed under the ministrations of thousands of hands leaving thanks for its rumoured health-bestowing powers.

  • Long read

Love, grief and assisted dying

In this deeply affecting story, Michelle Elliot explores the events and emotions around the time of her mother’s medically assisted death in Canada, where the practice is legal.

  • Photo story

Alopecia in men

Men break their silence about total hair loss in these intimate portraits and interviews by Orlando Gili.

  • Book extract

Your gut’s instincts

Cultural historian Elsa Richardson explores the stomach’s influence over our emotions, and why trusting your gut is often good advice.

Part of Inside our books
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