'Rachel Clarke's finest book yet' Financial Times; A September 2024 BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week  and a Guardian best science and nature book of 2024

Michael Rosenthal chairs a discussion on our health service with Rachel Clarke and Iona Heath. Rachel's latest, profoundly moving, best selling work is the story of the urgent journey of the heart of nine-year-old Keira, victim of a fatal car accident; the history of the remarkable medical innovations that made possible the transplant of Keira’s heart to nine-year-old Max; and the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless physicians, immunologists, nurses and scientists.

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Dr Rachel Clarke will be the after-dinner speaker at the Medical Women’s Foundation Spring Conference 2025.

Location: Downing College, Cambridge

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Dr Rachel Clarke will be giving the closing keynote speech at the DAUK’s 2025 Jenny Vaughan Memorial Conference:

Saturday 17th May 2025

The Wellcome Collection

215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE

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Kamran Abbasi, Susie Alegre and Rachel Clarke

Brave New World: AI and Health

How might AI change and supercharge medical advancement? And what does it mean for our healthcare? Kamran Abbasi, editor of the British Medical Journal, talks to lawyer Susie Alegre and doctor Rachel Clarke about how AI could solve the problem of disease and making vaccines, the role ChatGPT and robots could play in medical care, and how to successfully navigate the path between big business and personal health.

Abbasi is a doctor, journalist, editor and broadcaster. Alegre is a leading international human rights lawyer who has worked for NGOs including Amnesty International, and is author of Human Rights, Robot Wrongs. Clarke is a palliative care doctor and author of Dear Life, shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

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Writing Workshop: Non-Fiction

Arvon Masterclass

Dr Rachel Clarke, palliative care doctor and author of four acclaimed non-fiction books, including Dear Life and The Story of a Heart, leads this workshop focusing on non-fiction writing.

Clarke will guide you through the process of honing your topic, planning research, structure, format and narrative, and help you ensure your writing is clear and credible.

Arvon is the UK’s leading creative writing charity. Founded in 1968, it is known for its diverse creative writing courses and events led by leading authors. An online programme, ‘Arvon at Home’ offers virtual writing weeks, writing days, masterclasses and readings. Residential five-day courses are set in historic writing houses in inspiring countryside locations. Courses cover a range of genres including fiction, poetry, theatre, YA, creative non-fiction and more.

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Rachel Clarke talks to Nicola Cutcher

Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke tells the unforgettable and inspiring true story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke blends the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the stories of nine-year-olds Keira Ball and Max Johnson in this powerful event about life, death and how we honour loved ones.

After a terrible car accident, Keira suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat, and in an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.

Meanwhile Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family..

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Mishal Husain talks to Rachel Clarke

Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence

For decades, newsreader and journalist Mishal Husain had only a partial knowledge of her grandparents’ experiences during Partition. It was a fragment of an old sari that finally sent Husain on a journey through time, using letters, diaries, memoirs and audio tapes to trace the lives of four people shaped by the Raj, a world war, independence and partition.

Husain, a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and the news on BBC One, shares her grandparents’ stories, from pre-Partition India through to their new lives and identities, and reflects on the shared heritage of the past.

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Sparkling conversations, the very best names in women’s writing and an exquisite London location . . . could there be any better way for a booklover to spend a summer’s afternoon?

Join the Women’s Prize Trust in Bedford Square Gardens for Women’s Prize LIVE 2025. We’ll be hosting a day of lively in-conversation events with your favourite authors, introducing dazzling new talent, and offering a selection of inspiring workshops and 121s from writers and industry insiders. As evening falls, listen to exclusive readings of the 12 books shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction and Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

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