Richard Barnett & Mike Jay’s Medical London is a gripping testament to the power of place in London’s medical history, and the pleasures and inspirations to be gained from reading and walking it. London’s history has been intimately bound up with the history of diseases and their cures, and the history of medicine itself can be traced more clearly through the history of the sick city than anywhere else on the planet.

From the tentative beginnings of city life by the Thames to the bustle and sprawl of the twenty-first-century metropolis, Medical London offers a vision of London’s history that is by turns gruesome, compelling and humane.

You can read buy a copy of Medical London on Amazon here. Medical London was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in 2008.

Praise for Medical London

‘This is London’s real heritage … all human life, and human death, is here’ – Peter Ackroyd, The Times

‘Beautifully packaged … Barnett and Jay have produced a wonderful history both of Londoners’ lives and the medical profession’ – Observer

‘Like two white-aproned anatomists, Barnett and Jay stand above the still-breathing body of the city. They unveil a new and thrilling pathology – the city and the patient are one and the same … Medical London encourages the reader to enjoy the city to the full’ – Financial Times

‘Immaculate … a beautiful and enlightening compendium … a supremely beautiful box of edifying delights’ – Londonist

‘The best book about London in years’ – Nature