When in February 2014, I heard the news that my application for a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award had been successful, I could scarcely have imagined what would follow over the next six years. The Trust is perhaps unique among funders in the incredible extent to which it gives grantees the scope and encouragement to think… Continue reading
I have had close links with Hospice UK for many years, serving first as a Trustee and now as a Vice-President. So it was a real honour to be invited to give the opening plenary at the charity’s annual conference in Liverpool, in a splendid riverside setting overlooking the Mersey. The timing was good too. … Continue reading
I have been interested in the history of palliative care for over 20 years. I first got going on this work with Neil Small by conducting interviews with hospice founders in the United Kingdom and we then collaborated with Michelle Winslow and Nic Hughes on a general interest book about hospice pioneers. Later I worked… Continue reading
I’ve just embarked upon writing a new book – so far so good. It is to be 150,000 words long – a little daunting. It’s a biography – I have never written one before. The feeling is scary and at the same time exhilarating. The first paragraphs and pages are beginning to form. The idea… Continue reading
Very soon Dame Barbara Monroe will retire after a tremendous term of office as Chief Executive at St Christopher’s Hospice in South London – and many years there before that as a practising social worker. The event set me thinking about the early origins of St Christopher’s and some of the factors that shaped its… Continue reading
I am working on a new book at the moment, entitled To Comfort Always: A history of palliative medicine from the nineteenth century. In the opening chapter, I try to tease out some of the approaches to pain relief that were developing during the Victorian period in Britain. It is a fascinating trajectory. As the… Continue reading
