The Wellcome Book Prize shortlist has just been announced and, true to form, there isn’t a dud choice on it. The prize celebrates new books – fiction and non-fiction – that explore some aspect of health, medicine or illness, and the shortlist is always incredibly wide-ranging and interesting: relevant to all of us in so many ways; essential reading in other words, and yet we find that quite often we’ve missed some of the titles along the way.
This year’s list is made up of two novels (Playthings by Alex Pheby, and Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss), two memoirs (The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, about addiction, and The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink, about a devastating accident), and two works of non fiction (Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, which explores autism, and It’s All in Your Head by Suzanne O’Sullivan about psychosomatic illness). To explore the shortlist further, there are two events in which all the authors will discuss their work. We wouldn’t miss either. (We recently went to a talk about grief and families by Andrew Solomon and Marion Coutts, who won the prize in 2014 and 2015 respectively. It was totally brilliant).
The first is the Wellcome Book Prize Authors in Conversation on Saturday 23rd April, at the Wellcome Collection, which is on the Euston Road. At this event the authors, chaired by writer and sociologist Anne Karpf, will discuss their creative process and explore the broader context of medicine and literature.
The second is a 5 x 15 event (these are always great, and as a result have a loyal and large following, so sell out quickly), in which each author will deliver a 15 minute lecture on a subject relating to their book. This is on Sunday 24th April at 4pm, at The Tabernacle on Powis Square, just off Portobello Road.
Though the first event is free, you do need to book tickets for it as places are limited, and we recommend you do so now. Both events are bound to sell out fast.
