Richard Smith's non-medical blogs
An entrancing play that captures the defining scene in the life of Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)
My obituary of Tessa Richards, reflections on writing obituaries, and my personal memories of Tessa
The 30-year campaign of Tessa Richards to make patient partnership in the NHS and the BMJ a reality rather that a largely-ignored aspiration
My Plan Bs for sustaining health care: please share yours
Death is the main shaper of medical care
Strange conversation
A novel on the making of the Lancet and of Thomas Wakley, “the medical Florence Nightingale”
“Doing science” with our granddaughters
“Nobody dies saying ‘I wish I’d spent more time on the office.’” Well, I might be the first
Hanging out with Nazis and watching a magnificent play
Not guilty verdict in trial of doctors and nurses for criminal damage to world’s biggest funder of fossil fuels shows importance of juries and public support for strong action on the climate crisis
At last, somebody who admires my dancing
A dance inspired by a suicide note
How to steal the 2026 US elections
“Eating people is wrong” (Or is it?)
Three couples are offered a chance to reconsider or renegoiate their marriage
An ancient civilisation collapsed because of lack of water, modern Iran may be about to follow, and many others may follow later
A powerful play based on the trial of six doctors and nurses for climate protests should be on national television of radio
Don’t just read a book, mine it
Fiction and non-fiction: is there any real difference?
Turner and Constable: “compare and contrast”
“There is no wealth but life” and “flat of the curve” healthcare
How does it feel on the first day of a war?
Flesh: a great existential novel or a case of the emperor’s clothes?
A weak novel but filled with ideas on death, longevity, and much more
The answers of Donald J Trump and Vladimir Putin to the five central questions posed by Rutgers Breman and answered by all religions
New Year Story
How small committed groups can change the world and how we need new groups now in a time of crisis
Rutger Bregman’s answers to the five great questions that all religions answer and we must answer for ourselves if we don’t follow a religion
Wright of Derby: tenebrist painter of science and the Enlightenment
How to write a readable and enjoyable novel about the climate crisis: invent a new form
Why are there more kings that queens?
“Mummy, can we go to another funeral tomorrow?”
A life-enhancing novel in which pride comes before resounding crashes
Exploring why healthcare systems promote inhuman behaviour
Stories and lessons from history on a doctors’ strike: how everybody loses, patients most of all
Police absurdities
Four views on whether the NHS suffers from an “infinity of demand”
Can prostate cancer propel Wes Streeting into Downing Street?
Hope for avoiding the harm from the climate and nature crisis without action is damaging and nothing but a deceiving sedative
What is money for? A discussion between father and son
“Are you looking forward to the festive season?” ( A story with no act III. Like life)
An economist with glamour: the day I seemed to fall in love with the now-fallen Larry Summers
Britain after the war with its new welfare state: the New Jerusalem or a crucial step in Britain’s continuing decline?
The story of the poet and his great poem comprised of grief and loss of faith
A wife sees the magic of football
A “modest proposal”: the NHS offers only symptomatic and palliative care to those over 75
Into the heart of darkness: Walthamstow
Revisiting J Alfred Prufrock
A powerful confession filled with grief, memory, and war
My first firing
Sebastian Barry on grief, memory, and writing
A disappointing novel from which I collected a rich haul of negative quotes about Venice
Two books that have led me to reflect on my loss of faith and on what I do believe
Victor Hugo’s 1831 vivid account of sex (only with a bell not a woman)
Blogs and quotes from The Diversity of Life by EO Wilson: a treasure trove
What is “the death of birth” apart from being a chilling phrase?
“The most enjoyable biography ever written”?
Why we should be eating turtles, iguanas, and winged beans not beef
The extraordinariness of ordinary people celebrated in a comic bovel
Drummond Rennie, obituary of a friend
Taxonomy of a familiar primate
A young artist reflects on how an old artist might feel about his life
What made you become a writer? A novel with an exciting answer
An old man, a young woman, and the possibility of marriage
How to connect with nature by looking at the creatures that live in your forehead
The end of disease and the beginning of health
Success for the single patient record depends on citizens and patients owning their data
A stroll and discoveries in Chelsea
Mansfield Park: Is Fanny a drip or a protofeminist?
Messages I took from Virginia Woolf’s great essay “A Room of One’s Own”