What’s worth remembering?
On the penultimate page of Rob Delaney’s grief memoir, we get a summary of the story so far: Our boy got sick We went to a lot of doctors, trying to find out what was wrong with him. We found...
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A Fortunate Woman. A country doctor’s story
While clearing out her mother’s books in 2020, Polly Morland finds a battered copy of John Berger’s A Fortunate Man stuck at the back of a bookshelf, untouched for some decades. The book offers a poetic description of six weeks...
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The Richer, The Poorer
Lansley, S. (2021) The Richer, The Poorer – How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor A 200 Year History, Bristol, Policy Press. You might think that someone who starts a book with a quote from singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen like,...
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The Social Causes of Health and Disease
Cockerham, W. C. (2021) Social Causes of Health and Disease (3rd Ed). Cambridge, Polity Press. It’s never a bad idea to return to a disciplinary handbook that offers up the fundamentals of a subject. Regarding this blog, that core discipline...
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What are sociology books for?
Rumours of the death of the book may be exaggerated, but its persistence remains a puzzle. Who and what are academic books for, now that information is largely accessible at the press of a button? Reviewing the three books shortlisted...
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Living under the medical gaze in a time of pandemics
It’s a Sin shows us what it’s like to feel the medical gaze in times of pandemics It’s a Sin is a new drama series (Channel 4 and HBO) written by Russell T Davies which chronicles the lives of a...
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Support workers as invisible healthcare providers
Book Review: Support Workers and the Health Professions an International Perspective, the invisible providers of healthcare Support workers are: ‘a worker who provides face-to-face care or support of a personal or confidential nature to patients and/or service users in clinical...
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Who Killed my Father - Review
Who Killed My Father: A pointed reflection on class injustice and toxic masculinity from the young French author of ‘The End of Eddy’ It is more common for novels and memoirs (of which this book is both) to be more...
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Obesity: Who are you calling diseased?
In Britain and elsewhere the so-called ‘obesity crisis’ is regularly headline news. Media coverage focuses on the health risks associated with higher BMIs and the financial implications of this for the National Health Service (NHS). People are encouraged to act...
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Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Compassion and Solidarity
Is there more anger in the news than usual? Ala Sirriyeh, 2018. The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy. Bristol: Bristol University Press. xiv, 208 pp. Boris Johnson’s inflammatory language at the first session of the UK’s Westminster parliament after its...
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The Last of Us – Review