Stories

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

  • Book extract

Waking the dead

Historian Molly Conisbee reflects on how we’ve paid our respects to the dead over the centuries – from lively gatherings around open coffins to sympathetic text messages – asking how mourning rituals can create communities.

Part of Inside our books

  • Article

How the slave trade’s medical legacies persist

Micha Frazer-Carroll, uncovers the historical links between enslavement and disability to better understand her family’s complex attitudes towards healthcare.

  • Long read

Letting go of IVF

Fertility treatment is physically and emotionally arduous, with no guarantees. Jessa Fairbrother describes her decision not to have IVF and the complexity of living with that choice.

  • Article

Pregnancy, parenting, and embracing blindness

Amy Kavanagh, who is blind, shares the delight she feels in her young, sighted son, and her growing acceptance of the ways his experiences will differ from hers.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Disability, desire, and pleasure unlocked

Roxy Murray dives into the raw, intimate truths of sex and pleasure as a disabled person, sharing an unapologetic and explicit journey through her frustrations and desires.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled

LGBTQ+ cultures

Discover the variety of LGBTQ+ histories, cultures and lived experiences in this selection from the Stories archive.

  • Article

Queer cafés and gay mylk

Holly Regan explores queer London spaces where the alternative – oat milk – is the norm for the communities gathering there.

Part of Milk, from ground to glass
  • Article

Battling the heteronormativity of sexual health

As a queer, Black women, Mary W is sick of the never-ending hetero-cycle of clinic appointments, where her needs and sexuality are always a surprise to the doctor. She calls for a revolution.

Part of Black British women on health
  • Article

Butch drag in the builders’ caff

Two men in a café dressed in practical workwear might seem indistinguishable, but closer inspection reveals layers of complex, nuanced identity.

Part of Explaining men
  • Serial

Ace joy

In this comic focusing on asexuality, Katie Green illustrates the queer joy of viewing one’s orientation – and oneself – as complete and whole.

Can our sexual desires be transformed?

In the 1950s, many psychiatrists thought that homosexuality could be reformed. One found that it couldn’t – and his discoveries led to a change in the law.

Part of The hidden persuaders
Part of The war of nerves
  • Article

Being trans in the world of sex work

Unstable. Predatory. Risk takers. Dr Adrienne Macartney sheds stark light on the hostile and negative assumptions faced by trans sex workers.

Part of Reframing sex work
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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

Exploring Deaf space at London College of Fashion

In this British Sign Language (BSL) film, activist and architectural designer Christopher Laing outlines the five principles of Deaf space and shares his thoughts on identity and inclusive design.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Fashion, identity, and the need for community

Sinéad Burke’s love of fashion has driven her to campaign for change and, ultimately, establish a consultancy that aims to transform the way the industry includes and represents Disabled people.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

Ballet, beauty, and the joy of wheelchair dance

Since childhood, Kate Stanforth has danced whenever and wherever she could. The only difference now is her wheelchair.

Part of The Joy of Being Disabled
  • Article

What are zines doing in a museum

On the face of it, zines and museums are not a good fit, but Lea Cooper argues, they have a lot to offer each other.

Part of Zines at Wellcome Collection
  • Article

Left behind by workplace wellbeing

Having experienced bouts of serious mental illness, Caroline Butterwick discovers that the new world of workplace wellbeing schemes fails to mitigate discrimination against people like her.

  • In pictures

Cola’s complicated roots

How one of the most famous soda drinks in the world got its name from a traditional West African delicacy.

Part of Kola cultures
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