About

Personal

I am a psychiatrist and writer with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. I became ill in my twenties when I was expecting my first daughter, and had a series of hospital admissions and treatment with medication and ECT. I subsequently trained as a psychiatrist myself (despite much advice to the contrary), and work in addictions and chronic pain. Perhaps unusually, I work in the same hospital where I am treated (and was previously an in-patient)

Despite everything, I have been very lucky to live my life as I have. I am married with several grown-up daughters and a dog, and play the violin with enthusiasm, if not talent. In recent years, I have written copiously about my experiences, both in my blog as well as the in Guardian and Prospect Magazine. I also write poetry, largely about daily life.

My memoir, ‘An Improbable Psychiatrist’ was published by Cambridge University Press at the end of 2024.

I have also written a novel, as yet unpublished, called ‘The Mind Reader’.