My first medical book An Outline of Modern Psychiatry, based on my revision notes for the MRCPsych exam, was published in 1981. It proved an unexpected success with generations of trainee clinicians and reached five editions, later ones being edited by a colleague, but the content is now out of date. I went on to write and edit books and papers about psycho-oncology for academic publishers in the UK. These include Cancer and Emotion and Enhancing Cancer Care.
My later books relating to health and wellbeing were written for general readers besides health professionals, and include Focus on Healing, Persons not Diseases, Life’s Labyrinth, Wellbeing for Writers and Bach Flowers for Mind-Body Healing.
Two family memoirs: Across a Sea of Troubles is a very personal account of my husband’s near-fatal heart attack coinciding with my mother’s decline and death, and the effects of that stress on my own mental and physical health.
Five years later, my husband is in good health, and I have edited his memoir A Partly Anglicised Kiwi: a psychiatrist remembers describing his early life in New Zealand, his medical school days, and experience as a trainee psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in London.
Lastly, an excellent book which has had rave reviews (I didn’t write it, only edited it and found a publisher): Geoffrey Guy’s War, my late uncle’s account of training as an RAF Spitfire and Hurricane pilot and active service in the Far East.
Jennifer Barraclough 