Unreliable bodies and shifting symptoms are all in a day’s work for a GP.
This fascinating collection cuts to the heart of existence.
In his years of practising, Gavin Francis has seen it all: the promising law student trapped under the spell of anorexia; the bodybuilder whose use of illegal steroids threatens his fertility; the teenager agonising over the perplexing physical dramas of puberty; and the surprisingly upbeat woman growing a horn in the centre of her forehead.
In ‘Shapeshifters’ he draws on his patients’ bodily transformations, both welcome and unwelcome, bringing together case histories and accounts from the history of medicine, art, literature, myth and magic to show how the very essence of being human is change.
Read an extract from the book
- Date published
- Format
- Paperback
- Extent
- 304 pages
- ISBN
- 9781781257746
About the author
Gavin Francis
Gavin Francis is a GP and the author of eleven books of non-fiction including Adventures in Human Being (2015) Shapeshifters (2018), Intensive Care (2021), Recovery: the Lost Art of Convalescence (2022) and Free For All (2023) - a passionate defence of the principles of the NHS. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. His books have been translated into twenty languages. His latest book, The Unfragile Mind, examines mental health, arguing for greater curiosity, humility, kindness, and hope in approaches to psychiatric diagnosis.