Giles Dawnay CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016, PB, 196pp, £14.99, 978-1533198624
Giles Dawnay is a graduate entrant into medicine. When he was 34, he suffered an embolic stroke, which presented with expressive dysphasia and facial weakness while he was talking to his wife. He moved swiftly from being a junior doctor to being a patient, going through all the familiar processes and stages of grief. This book is a collection of his poems, thoughts and reflections on the new world in which he found himself. He says:
‘I write for many reasons; sometimes for fun, sometimes to be heard, sometimes to wrestle with something I’m intrigued by, sometimes because I’m scared.’
As this suggests, both poems and reflections often come across as streams of consciousness on the themes of the physical and psychological sequelae of his stroke, loss, support, healing, and aids to recovery.
It’s a good example of what has been described as ‘creative words for health & wellbeing’, to quote Playspace Publications (playspacepublications.com).
Playspace publishes poetry pamphlets, cards, stories, anecdotes, and essays, some coming from Maggie’s Centres in Scotland (www.maggiescentres.org), where free, practical, emotional, and social support is given to people with cancer, and their families and friends.
There is now an established movement of creative writing for therapeutic purposes, with organisations in the UK and internationally. A good example is Lapidus: ‘the words for wellbeing association’ (www.lapidus.org.uk).
Brushstrokes is written by a doctor, of course, and this brings both particular insights due to our medical knowledge, and special difficulties due to being both patient and a doctor. The book illustrates these tensions very well and also shows us that there is no easy way to move forward after a stroke except through the hard physical work involved in recovery. Adapting to a different sense of self after a major health event like a stroke is challenging.
This is an honest and courageous book.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2019
