Ravenswood 47 Bristol Road Weston-super-Mare June 18th, 1953 Dear John, Thank you for your letter. I never know when I’m going to get another one from you, but it’s always a super surprise, especially the funny places they turn up in. This one was peeking out from under the doormat, and I’m glad I […]
Author: John Graham-Pole
Letters to Myself 14
216 Clydesdale Road Antigonish Nova Scotia 12/12/13 Dear Johnny Boy, High time I wrote again! I was just reading a book about yummy things to eat when you are a boy, and it got me remembering all sorts of things I used to love. And I often cook meals that Mummy used to make […]
Letters to Myself 14
216 Clydesdale Road Antigonish Nova Scotia 12/12/13 Dear Johnny Boy, High time I wrote again! I was just reading a book about yummy things to eat when you are a boy, and it got me remembering all sorts of things I used to love. And I often cook meals that Mummy used to make (I […]
My final exam – and my first child
Another extract from my memoir – meeting my first child patient in my Finals I’ve distinguished myself through four medical school years by never setting foot inside Barts Children’s Unit. At twenty-six years old, the very notion of sick children sends shivers through me, chilled a few more degrees by Sister Kenton’s […]
“Midder”
Here’s an extract from my newly published memoir, recalling my medical student days, when I first attended the delivery of a healthy baby. An awesome experience… After six months of professorial scholarship and seat-of-the-pants emergency medicine, I escape to sunnier climes, assigned for the month of July to my “midder”—midwifery—rotation at the North Middlesex Hospital […]
My memoir
I’m delighted to say my medical memoir has just been released by Wising Up Press http://universaltable.org/librarynonfiction/journeysthousandheroes.html Bookstore: http://universaltable.org/bookstore.html It is available from their bookstore (at a 25% discount) for $15 US, but after July 16 it will be on Amazon and other internet outlets at the standard price of $20 Journeys with a Thousand Heroes: A […]
What I Learned from Nurses
Over my 40-year career, most of it spent caring for children with cancer, nurses were my companions and my mentors. Here’s a piece I wrote in praise of them. What I Learned from Nurses Barts Hospital, London, 1967: Oncology Internship Staff waylays me in the intern’s office. “Have you thought of writing Jeffrey for opiates? […]
Letters to Myself 13
Letters to Myself 13 Ravenswood 47 Bristol Road Weston-super-Mare Somerset November 9th, 1952 Dear John, Thank you for your last letter. It’s nice that writing these letters helps you remember things you thought you had forgotten. Sometimes I forget things, too, but it’s mostly when I’m trying to conjugate a Greek or Latin verb. But […]
Letters to Myself 12
216 Clydesdale Road, Antigonish, Nova Scotia November 5th, 2015 Dear Johnny-Boy, It was lovely to get your last letter. I remember taking those piano lessons, and not enjoying them very much. I think Mummy was disappointed I didn’t get into them the way she obviously did. It was probably because I resented all that […]
Unheard stories
Art has been a healing force throughout human history. Shamans have always used it to evoke healing power for individuals and whole communities. Our forebears lived at the interface of visible and invisible, and used art to make sense of the universe that surrounded them. And art remains a vital human nutrient. Our world remains […]