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Happy New Year and welcome to season 6 of Bedside Reading!!

I so enjoyed meeting John Quin in 2022 at the DotMD festival. Our paths have crossed repeatedly on Twitter and then in person at Medicine Unboxed so it was a real treat to sit down together to record this episode about his memoir Medicine Man.  John is a retired endocrinologist with a second career as an arts writer. Find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/JDMQuin

I loved talking about careers, changes, storytelling, opportunities and so much more.

John also has a new book out in the Arts for Health Series which is called Video

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A reflective look back over 2023 and some thoughts for 2024 as I'm joined by friends of the podcast to think about their tops reads of the year and their most anticipated reads for 2023.

Huge thank you to Claire McKie, Dani Hall, Anna Baverstock, Nik Kendrew, Nicola Davis, Selina Flinders, Alan Coss, Fran Boffey, Charley Baker and Derek Ochiai and Ellie Hothersall

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What a treat to welcome Catherine Bell and Stephanie Farrell Moore to Bedside Reading to talk about their wonderful small anthology of poetry by neurodivergent women Kaleidoscopic Minds. Follow them on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/kaleidoscopic_minds_poetry/

Buy your copy here https://kaleidoscopicmindsuk.etsy.com/listing/1606941954
All proceeds go to Autistic Girls Network https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/

Huge thank you to https://twitter.com/Cathersbell for producing this resource list

Neurodiversity resources for patients, parents and professionals:

Autism

• SIGN patient information booklets - https://www.sign.ac.uk/patient-and-public-involvement/patient-publications/autism/ 
• Neurotribes by Steve Silberman – Book/Audiobook
• What I want to talk about: How autistic special interests shape a life & Untypical by Pete Wharmby – Book/Audiobook
• Chris Packham Inside our autistic minds - BBC documentary 

Autism in women and girls:

https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Keeping-it-all-inside.pdf

• Odd Girl Out: An autistic woman in a neurotypical world by Laura James – Book/Audiobook
• Strong female character by Fern Brady – Book/Audiobook
• Christine McGuinness: Unmasking my autism – BBC documentary 

ADHD:

• Driven to Distraction by Ed Hallowell MD and John Ratey MD – Book/Audiobook
• Taking charge of adult ADHD by Russell Barkley – Book/Audiobook
• ADHD Aha! by Understood – Podcast 
• The Disruptors – Documentary film
• ADDitude magazine - https://www.additudemag.com 

ADHD in women and girls:

• ADHD As Females – Podcast
• ADHD for smart ass women by Tracy Otsuka – Podcast
• Earthed by Rebecca Schiller – Book/Audiobook
• Moodswings, Meds and Mared – Documentary (Welsh with subtitles) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4aDWG-AXCo 

Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/Specific learning differences:

• Everything is going to be K.O. by Kaiya Stone – Book/Audiobook
• British Dyslexia Association https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk 
• Dyspraxia Foundation https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk 

Tourettes:

• https://www.tourettes-action.org.uk 
• Lewis Capaldi: How I’m feeling now – Netflix documentary

Parenting/School:

• Your child is not broken by Heidi Mavir – Book/Audiobook
• Can't Not Won't: A Story About A Child Who Couldn't Go To School by Eliza Fricker - Book
• In It: Supporting kids who think and learn differently by Understood - Podcast

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I'm delighted to welcome the wonderful Andy Tagg, ED consultant (and part of the DFTB team who ate lego heads and calculated their FART score as the sieved their poo to work out how long it takes to pass a swallowed plastic toy https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/27/shit-a-brick-doctors-swallow-lego-to-allay-parents-fears) to Bedside Reading this week.

Follow Andy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/andrewjtagg

Andy is a gamer, I am not. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a bit of a hit on instagram early in 2023 with the main critics complaining it's all about gaming. I loved it! It was fascinating to discuss with Andy from his perspective of having truly connected with some of the characters' own experiences.

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It's such a treat to welcome back Ana Sampson for a dive into ideas for your Jolabokaflod.  As happens every time I speak to Ana we set out to think about a few books - the brief today was 5 - and end up side tracked and delighted to talk about more.

Ana's own poetry collection Gods and Monsters is definitely up there for me as a book to buy (or request...)

You can buy your Christmas Books wherever you most enjoy shopping but here's a link to my favourite independent bookshop's storefront on the fabulous bookshop.org platform
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scarthinbooks

We talked about:

Gods and Monsters curated by Ana Sampson

The Whalebone Theatre  by Joanna Quinn

The Beasts of Paris by Stef Penny

Skip to the End by Molly James

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Storyland for Children by Amy Jeffs

Femina by Jamina Ramirez

Dominion by Tom Holland

England on Fire by Stephen Elcock and Matt Osman

The Ghost Theatre by Matt Osman

Lost and Never Found by Simon Mason

Dead Rich and The Conspirators by William Shaw

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Oliver Sacks classic book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is one of the absolute classic texts in the genre of stories from the humanity of medicine. It's fascinating to go back to it with the mind of someone working in 2023.

It was lovely to connect with Neurologist Louisa Kent to think about our responses to it and our perceptions of the way the book is written and the huge changes that have occurred in the last 20 years.

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A confession, I don't like Greek mythology. AT ALL. I did however love this book both when I first read it 10 years ago and on re-reading for this podcast.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Ellie Hothersall and I had such a brilliant conversation about expectations, life scripts, stubbornness, the need to say sorry (and mean it!) and why some stories never ever grow old.

Follow Ellie on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DundeePublicH

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"It took 20 years,” writes Fergal Keane in The Madness, “before I came to the point of accepting I was addicted to war.”

This extraordinary book by War Journalist Fergal Keane is an exploration of his journey, generational trauma, PTSD, addiction and so much more.

It seems right to release this episode this week, with Armistice Day at the weekend and so much conflict and horror in the world around us currently

I loved talking to Forensic Psychiatrist Emily Ramsay about it.

https://twitter.com/drerpsych

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It was a huge privilige to meet Rowena Christmas aka "the doctor" from Polly Moreland's wonderful book A Fortunate Woman.

Among other things we talk about John Berger's original book A Fortunate Man, living and working locally to your practice, the joys of continuity, community and the wonderful weird world of being a GP.

Follow Rowena on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ChristmasRowena

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It was an honour when paeditrician Cristina approached me on Instagram to tell me how much Loveless had meant to her when she listened to it by accident on a long commute and suddenly jigsaw pieces of her own life fell into place.

We talk about the importance of representation in fiction, the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity and what it means to be asexual (which includes busting myths around asexuality and celibacy)

It's Ace week from 22-28th October 2023 have a look here for more info https://aceweek.org/

Cristina recommends https://www.asexuality.org/ as a great starting point if you want to know more.

Obviously follow brilliant author Alice Oseman on instagram https://www.instagram.com/aliceoseman/?hl=en and find Cristina here: https://twitter.com/munchkindr on Twitter or https://www.instagram.com/jarofmeows on instagram