Wellcome Collection – The Bell Bookshop

No Ordinary Deaths

Emma — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

‘A beautifully written and thought provoking journey’ Professor Sue Black, author of All That Remains’There surely won’t be a better history of the subject than Conisbee’s’ Literary Review ‘Richly researched … an intimate chronology’ TLSThe lost art of ‘dying well’ was common knowledge to our ancestors – who, living closer to death than we do, had an intimate and integrated relationship with the afterlife. For centuries, cycles of death, dying and disposal have shaped society, from the death-watchers of the Middle Age to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear.Ranging from the plague pit to the grave-robbery, from consecrated ground to the hangman’s drop, No Ordinary Deaths is a groundbreaking work of social history which asks: how did our ancestors live, and die? How might the old ways help prepare us for our own ends?

To Exist as I Am

Emma — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2026 'This book is extraordinary' MIRANDA HART 'Life-affirming' VIV GROSKOP 'Astonishing, important, and truly radical ' POLLY MORLAND At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green's spine was broken and her life changed course. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was one herself. Over the years that followed, words like healing and recovery took on new meanings. Some emotions, like sadness and self-pity, dimmed. Others were heightened, and Grace learned to embrace them all: anger at a world ill-equipped to accommodate her new body; passion to demand change; and joy found in community, nature and wild swimming. Through her powerful story, Grace shows how we can come back to ourselves after trauma and fight for change while joyously embracing life exactly as we are. 'Extraordinary' XAND VAN TULLEKEN 'Superb' RACHEL CLARKE

The Unfragile Mind

Emma — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

‘Francis combines the precision of science with a profound insight into the human condition’ GUARDIAN FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING AND RECOVERY Between a quarter and a fifth of young people in the UK now suffer a mental disorder. One in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. These numbers represent a huge and recent expansion in mental health labelling, but reveal nothing of the experience of those seeking help.In The Unfragile Mind, Gavin draws on conversations with patients, colleagues, and his thirty years of practice to explore the chequered history of psychiatry, the nature of mental health and ill-health, and the problems – including mood disorders, trauma, anxiety and addiction – that he addresses daily.The mind, he argues, is dynamic and adaptive – better addressed not with rigid labels and protocols, but with curiosity, kindness, humility and hope.

Nine Minds

Emma — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Waterstones Best Popular Science Book of 2024 Pick – from the bestselling author of BORN ON A BLUE DAY and THINKING IN NUMBERSA Japanese researcher in psychology sets out to measure loneliness while drawing on her own experience of autism. A quirky boy growing up in 1950s Ottawa sows the seeds of his future Hollywood stardom. In the US, a non-verbal man explores body language, gesture by eloquent gesture, in his mother’s yoga classes. Nine Minds delves into the extraordinary lives of nine neurodivergent men and women from around the globe. From a Fields Medal-winning mathematician to a murder detective, a pioneering surgeon to a bestselling novelist, each is remarkable in their field, and each is changing how the world sees those on the spectrum.Exploding the tired stereotypes of autism, Daniel Tammet – acclaimed author and an autistic savant himself – reaches across the divides of age, gender, sexuality and nationality to draw out the inner worlds of his subjects. Telling stories as richly diverse as the spectrum itself, this illuminating, life-affirming work of narrative nonfiction celebrates the power and beauty of the neurodivergent mind, and the daring freedom with which these individuals have built their lives.

Immaculate Forms

Emma — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

‘Delightful, timely and critical’ Cat Bohannon’Expertly weaves science, history and culture to illuminate the most misunderstood parts of our bodies’ Dr Jennifer GunterThroughout history, religious scholars, medical men and – occasionally – women themselves, have moulded thought on what ‘makes’ a woman. She has been called the weaker sex, the fairer sex, the purer sex, among many other monikers. Often, she has been defined simply as ‘Not A Man’. Today, we are more aware than ever of the complex relationship between our bodies and our identities. But contrary to what some may believe, what makes a woman is a question that has always been open-ended. Immaculate Forms examines all the ways in which medicine and religion have played a gatekeeping role over women’s organs. It explores how the womb was seen as both the most miraculous organ in the body and as a sewer; uncovers breasts’ legacies as maternal or sexual organs – or both; probes the mystery of the disappearing hymen, and asks, did the clitoris need to be discovered at all?

To Exist as I Am

Emma — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

‘Surrendering to what happens to us, to find joy and meaning in spite of it, is the bravest and most wise choice we can make and this book is an extraordinary one to inspire just that’ MIRANDA HART’Astonishing, important, and truly radical … this book is completely transformative’ POLLY MORLAND’Essential reading’ XAND VAN TULLEKENIt wasn’t a car crash, but there was a collision. He fell from the third floor. At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra, and her life changed tracks. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was one.To Exist As I Am traces Grace’s journey back to the wards and back to herself – as words like recovery, independence and community, well and unwell, took on new meanings. Through her extraordinary story, she asks how we might fight for change, while joyously embracing life exactly as we are.’Inspiring and life-affirming’ VIV GROSKOP’It’ll change the way you think about disability. Stop whatever it is that you’re reading and read Grace Spence Green instead’ GAVIN FRANCIS’Unputdownable, awe-inspiring, necessary’ GABRIEL WESTON’So true and so beautiful’ TOM SHAKESPEARE

No ordinary deaths

Emma — Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

History is dominated by A-list deaths: queens beheaded; archdukes assassinated. But what about everyone else? How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones – and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end?Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From the death-watchers of the Middle Ages to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear, by way of plague pits, grave-robberies and wakes, historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped – and been shaped by – society. She examines, through the prism of past deaths, their interweaving with our beliefs and politics, our most fervent hopes and deepest fears and, ultimately, what it means to ‘die well’.A groundbreaking new work of social history, No Ordinary Deaths paints a rich picture of the lives of our forebears, skilfully bringing the lost art of death to life today.

How to be a Renaissance woman

Emma — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

*A Waterstones Best Book of 2023**A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week**A New York Times Editor’s Pick*’Terrific’ SARAH DUNANT’Lively and intriguing … You’ll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way’ MAGGIE O’FARRELL’Highlights a rich tapestry of female experience that encompasses everyone from artisans to aristocrats …’ THE TIMESThis is the story of the Renaissance, but not as you know it. Discover overlooked and silenced women from this extraordinary moment in history and how they forged opportunities for creativity, community and resistance. From the bedchamber to the court, they give us an intimate window into what life was really like – and hold a mirror up to our contemporary obsession with how we look.’A witty and engaging history of cosmetics and beauty … lavishly illustrated and hugely entertaining’ IRISH TIMES’A total eye-opener, I loved it’ NUALA McGOVERN

Nine minds

Emma — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A Japanese researcher in psychology sets out to measure loneliness while drawing on her own experience of autism. A quirky boy growing up in 1950s Ottawa sows the seeds of his future Hollywood stardom. In the US, a non-verbal man explores body language, gesture by eloquent gesture, in his mother’s yoga classes. Nine Minds delves into the extraordinary lives of nine neurodivergent men and women from around the globe. From a Fields Medal-winning mathematician to a murder detective, a pioneering surgeon to a bestselling novelist, each is remarkable in their field, and each is changing how the world sees those on the spectrum.Exploding the tired stereotypes of autism, Daniel Tammet – acclaimed author and an autistic savant himself – reaches across the divides of age, gender, sexuality and nationality to draw out the inner worlds of his subjects. Telling stories as richly diverse as the spectrum itself, this illuminating, life-affirming work of narrative nonfiction celebrates the power and beauty of the neurodivergent mind, and the daring freedom with which these individuals have built their lives.