Stories

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

  • Photo story

There at the end

Through the stories of six hospice and palliative care workers, photographer Anna Gordon reflects on the meaningful moments that shape our final days.

  • Article

A school for deaf children

Formal deaf education in England started at the end of the 18th century with an innovative school in London.

  • In pictures

(Mis)representations of gout

Gout became known as a fashionable disease of the rich and powerful, but did its notoriety diminish the personal experiences of this painful condition?

Part of Inside our collections
  • Photo story

Sign language stories

British Sign Language (BSL) has evolved over centuries, shaped by stories of exclusion, and opportunity. Deaf photographer Stephen Iliffe has photographed eight people from a multi-cultural deaf community, celebrating both the quiet nuance and the expressive power of BSL.

  • Article

The blue space blueprint

It’s easy to overlook the litter choking our cities’ waterways, but the litter-picker’s manifesto is one to follow if we dream of a better world. Leila Taheri explores the psychology of littering and litter-picking, and imagines a radical future for our urban blue spaces.

In her words

From medical bias to moral panic, women’s lives have been shaped and distorted by the narratives told about them. These six stories challenge stigma in how we understand health, and make space for women’s voices to be heard.

  • In pictures

The dangers of women’s speech

For centuries, women have been ridiculed and punished for excessive talking, despite the fact that men gossip just as much.

Part of Inside our collections
  • Photo story

‘No you’re not’ – a portrait of autistic women

In this sensitive series of portraits and interviews, photographer Rosie Barnes acknowledges the voices and experiences of autistic women.

  • Article

Female masturbation and the perils of pleasure

Dr Kate Lister exposes the brutal 19th-century ‘cures’ for women who indulged in masturbation.

Part of Women, health and resistance

The search for a cure for endometriosis

Discover how a white American doctor’s experimental operations on black female slaves laid the foundations for modern gynaecological surgery.

Part of Painful realities
  • Long read

Primodos, paternalism and the fight to be heard

Journalist Florence Wildblood examines the case of Primodos – a conveniently quick but risky hormone pregnancy test that was prescribed in the 1960s and ’70s – and profiles two women at the story’s shocking heart.

Part of Women, health and resistance
  • Article

Witches

Many of the women persecuted as witches in the 16th-century “witch craze” were over 50 and exhibited signs of menopause. Helen Foster suggests that the stigma of the wicked witch still affects older women and how they deal with menopause.

Part of A bloody history of menopause
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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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  • Long read

Acts of love and resistance in Sudan

Growing up in Sudan, Jumana Eltgani knew the highs of water flowing and the lows of dry days. Her family’s clay zeer kept water cool and easy to share. Now, amid war, that spirit of generosity is keeping her neighbourhood alive.

  • Article

The vilest of all beverages

Drinking water was risky in the Middle Ages. But that didn’t stop people from drinking it – warily, enthusiastically, and sometimes with disgusting consequences. Historian Katherine Harvey explores the sometimes strange beliefs medieval people had about water.

  • Article

The price of pure water

Like millions of people across West Africa, Tracy Egbele’s family has no access to safe tap water, and buys plastic-packaged water instead. She highlights the serious problems facing this fragile system, and the daily health risks people are forced to take as a result.

  • Article

Island of thirst

Surrounded by saltwater but starved of the fresh kind, Aegina’s residents rely on tankers and plastic bottles to get by. Mirela Dialeti explores how life on this Greek island balances on a hope that a new underwater pipeline will finally bring change.

  • Article

Signing my skin colour

When Sabrina Tirvengadum tried to sign her skin colour as ‘Brown’ in BSL, her tutor insisted she use ‘Black’ instead. The experience led Sabrina to question why sign language couldn’t reflect her identity.

  • Article

Travelling for your health

A growing number of Victorians travelled to Europe for their health, but their experiences were not always what the doctor promised.

Part of Inside our collections
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