Stories

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

  • In pictures

Artists, activism and AIDS

Posters by artists who turned their art into activism to support their communities and raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

Part of Inside Our Collections

  • Article

The girl with no name

When a now anonymous teenager sold her tooth for transplant, she couldn’t have predicted that she’d end up at the heart of a troubling story about 18th-century beauty ideals.

  • Article

Doctor in the house

A house is not always a home – sometimes it’s impermanent, impersonal. But other aspects of the itinerant life can be the source of a sense of home.

  • Article

What the nose doesn’t know

Losing her sense of smell for over a year motivated Stephanie Howard-Smith to sniff out the history of treatments for this unsettling condition.

  • Article

The house of Joan

The longueurs of hospital stays and enforced inactivity were the spur to Joan’s precise tailoring skills and flamboyant creations, all to the benefit of her fashion-loving sisters.

Exploring neurodivergent experiences

Neurodivergent writers and artists examine subjects ranging from stigma to stimming.

  • Photo story

’No you’re not’ – a portrait of autistic women

In this sensitive series of portraits and interviews, photographer Rosie Barnes acknowledges the voices and experiences of autistic women.

  • Article

On body horror and growing up strange

A young child’s unusual feelings, reactions and assertions are routinely dismissed by adults. Find out how manga horror stories became a source of strength, and helped them trust their adult body.

  • Article

Succumbing to stimming in dance

As a child, Susanna Dye felt ashamed of their need to stim, but has found a way to incorporate these repetitive movements into their creative practice as a dancer and facilitator.

  • Article

Stigma, schizophrenia and being transgender

When he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Ashley McFord-Allister discovered that the medical world will not continue gender confirmation treatment while treating a mental health condition. Here he exposes the prejudice behind this attitude.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains
  • Article

Diagnosing OCD in the past

Mining the writings of and about famous historical figures, retrospective psychologists try to diagnose their mental health problems. But, inevitably, partial evidence is open to misinterpretation.

  • Article

Finding the words to talk about emptiness

Shored up by a diagnosis and medication, Cassie Doney tried to find out more about the profound feeling of emptiness they were experiencing. But research is thin on the ground.

More stories

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.

You may have missed

  • Article

Jim, the horse of death

Horses’ blood was used to produce an antitoxin that saved thousands of children from dying from diphtheria, but contamination was a deadly problem. Find out how a horse called Jim was the catalyst for the beginnings of medical regulation.

Part of Inside Our Collections
  • In pictures

Neuroqueering comics

Researcher and zine-maker Lea Cooper considers how comic-zines use the distinctive qualities of zines to explore some of the complex connections between memory, autobiography, disability, neurodivergence and queer identity.

Part of Inside Our Collections
  • Article

Womb milk and the puzzle of the placenta

A human baby needs milk to survive – and this holds true even before it’s born. Joanna Wolfarth explores “womb milk”, as well as ancient and modern ideas about the placenta.

  • Photo story

‘My Hair Is Not…’

Eight Black people talk about their relationship with their hair – their hairstyle history, their experiences, and how they decided to have natural hair.

  • Article

Hyperfocus and hobbies

Alex Chan talks about the power of ADHD-associated hyperfocus and how they’ve become wary of feeding it too often.

  • In pictures

A nasty history of the vaginal speculum

The vaginal speculum carries the weight of generations of preconceptions about morality, blame and attitudes to pain. Lalita Kaplish explores the history of the implement and how societies shaped its use.

Part of Inside Our Collections
More stories