About me

I am an award-winning author and freelance journalist. I trained as a journalist at Harlow Technical College before working in local newspapers and then specialising in health issues. I have worked freelance since 1991 and written for numerous national newspapers including the Guardian, Times, Sunday Telegraph and Express as well as for medical journals including the Lancet and BMJ. I currently write reviews, features and news stories for a wide range of national and specialist publications.

My first book, The Knife Man, a biography of the 18th-century surgeon John Hunter, was published in 2005. It won the UK Medical Journalists' Association Consumer Book Award and was short-listed for the Marsh Biography Award and the Saltire Award. My second book, Wedlock, was published in 2009. It was picked for Channel 4's TV Book Club and reached no 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller list. It has been optioned for a possible TV series. My third book, How to Create the Perfect Wife, came out in 2013, and was widely acclaimed. All my books have been published in the UK and US and translated into various languages. My fourth book, The Mesmerist, is out now in hardback and paperback. My latest book, Endell Street (UK)/No Man's Land (US) tells the story of a military hospital which was run by women in London during World War One.

As an author I have given talks at numerous festivals and other events as well as speaking to many book groups and other organisations. In America I have lectured at the University of North Carolina, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons conference 2008, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, and the University of Toledo, Ohio. I have been interviewed on many occasions on radio and TV. I have a diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries and won the Maccabean Prize for the best dissertation in 1999.

I am a member of the National Union of Journalists and a former fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. 

My current publishers are Atlantic Books (UK) and Basic Books (US). 

My agent is Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary Agents, 48 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LP, email Patrick@pewliterary.com.