conversations about medicine and life
We publish a range of perspectives on health and wellbeing, especially reflective work which fleshes out the biomedical version of illness and disability.
Ruth Arnison
When I first met my husband he mentioned that he was brought up in a terrorist house. That simple statement spiked my interest and I decided this was a guy I’d like to get to know. I was brought up in New Zealand South Island manses, absolutely tame compared to his London childhood I thought. By the time I figured out that he’d said terraced house I was in love with him which just proves that a hearing loss needn’t be construed as a negative disability!
Dr Hamish Wilson
In the last couple of decades, I have watched many fishermen carefully release their trout back into the river. Then they often let out a great sigh as they sit back on their haunches and breathe out for the first time in several minutes. This particular sigh sounds like ‘Phow’, an exclamation that seems to combine ‘Phew’ (a feeling of relief) and ‘Wow’ (an amazing success).
It is only in the last 20 years or so however, that I have learned how to catch and then release each trout. It was always winter when Dad took our family to the Waitahanui River near Taupo, and the trout were all rainbows. We used a sinking line to cast across and down the river, swinging a fly in front of the trout as they made their way upstream to spawn. We used a Red Setter fly exclusively, a large fluffy fly which probably imitates trout roe – or perhaps those fish just snapped at anything that moved. Once we had figured out the ‘lie’ in each pool where fish rested, we usually caught a few, and kept them to eat. My mother would bake the trout in the oven, or we smoked them to enjoy later. [Read more…] about The ‘Phow’ moment: In praise of catch and release
Sue Wootton & Barbara Brookes
It’s been a big first year for Corpus. We have published 91 articles since launching the site on 30 May. Thank you to all our contributors.
We are taking a short break to rejuvenate and will be back on Monday 30 January 2017.
If you want to read or re-read some of the popular articles, here are the five most read in 2016:
If you’ve enjoyed what we have published, please spread the word among your friends and colleagues and encourage them to also read and subscribe.
We are looking forward to your continued support and readership in 2017.
Sue Wootton & Barbara Brookes are the co-editors of Corpus.
Doug Lilly
This is the time of year where you may turn to a newspaper or magazine to search for recommended titles to read over the summer holidays (apologies to our Corpus readers in the northern hemisphere).
However I am not a “reader”. Those who have seen my not too insignificant collection of books might find this surprising. Over more than 45 of my adult years I have built a library of books that I had (and probably still have) every intention of reading – some day. Many have been leafed through and partially read. Many more retain their mint smell and feel. My vast, obsessive and largely unread collection of books on Bob Dylan fool many into thinking I am some sort of expert on the man.
Barbara Brookes
‘I was Calld to Mrs Howards this morning for to see her son. Find him very low. Went from Mrs Howards to see Mrs Williams. Find her very unwell. Hannah Cool is there. From thence to Joseph Fosters to see her sick Children. Find Saray & Daniel very ill. Came home went to the field & got some Cold water root. Then Calld to Mr Kenydays to see Polly. Very ill with the Canker. Gave her some of the root. I gargled her throat which gave her great Ease. Returned home after dark. Mr Ballard been to Cabesy. His throat is very soar. He gargled with my tincture. Find relief & went to bed comfortably.’ [Read more…] about A classic in the history of medicine: “A Midwife’s Tale”
Sue Wootton
Save the world? Let’s all start reading again, that’s what I say. Reading a book is an intensely personal activity. It’s just you and the words, make of them what you will. People can tell you what a book means to them, but no one can tell you what it means to you. That’s between you and the book. To find out, you need to come to know the book and your own mind. Those discoveries are generated in the private act of exploration we call reading. To be immersed in a book is to inhabit a creative and enchanted space, which is no bad thing to practice doing in a world that has come to feel distressingly devoid of magic. Because what is magic, if not another word for hope?
Here’s some of the fiction and non-fiction that I especially enjoyed in 2016. One way or another all these books address aspects of health, illness and wellbeing. Most of these titles are fairly recent publications, although I’ve included several older books that were new to me. Perhaps there’s something here to keep you company over the holidays, or better still to place on your bedside table to be part of your new year’s resolution to read for half an hour every night before sleep … to read yourself to sleep, to sleep perchance to dream …
