I really liked this interview and was especially interested because Istiaq Mian and I, coming from very different backgrounds and professions, have two interests in common. He might like to know that I wrote a book about people with AIDS, based wholly on deep interviews with a wide range of people with HIV/AIDS, called Wise Before their Time, stimulated by a close friendship with a young man with AIDS. Published in 1992 and again in 2017 by me. After he died, I volunteered in a hospice for four years, and wrote a book based on interviews with people working in hospice care, called Life in a Hospice, published in 2007 and again in 2017. The former is available, but rarely bought because few people are interested in AIDS anymore; the latter continues to sell.
How interesting, Ann — thanks for sharing. I’d love to read your two books. One of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve read is Mark Doty’s “Heaven’s Coast,” which chronicles his partner Wally’s death from AIDS. How sad that we stop caring about illnesses because of this or that trend. The suffering continues, and the stories deserve our attention no matter what the headlines say.
This one, although not a medical book at all, was Highly Commended by the BMA in 2008 - quite exciting at the time, because they so designated 4 or 5 books in a category and one was to be chosen as Book of the Year and we authors (and publishers) were invited to an event to find out who won the ‘big’ one. I didn’t, but it was quite a big deal to get that far in the first place.
I think this is probably my favourite of all my books, because the people we interviewed were so incredibly vulnerable - young, stigmatised and dying! It can’t get much worse than that. Their stories were so moving about how they told their parents and partners that they were diagnosed, how they coped with everyday living, how they felt about themselves. There’s probably some overlap with other conditions, but nothing was ever so stigmatising as AIDS!
They are both very moving for different reasons and have meant I have had a long interest in death, which I write about from time to time. See ‘dying’ on the list on my Substack.
Ann I'm in the same camp as Josh and would love to read these books. Wise Before Their Time particularly interests me. Thanks so much for listening and for sharing the links. While that era may be forgotten, I hope the lessons will stay and I'm sure your book does that.
Yes, it is much too forgotten and much too little written about. I didn't set out to do such an original project, but was having lunch with my friend who had AIDS (named Dietmar Bolle, he was an 'AIDS activist', and AIDS nurse) and he was organsing an international conference of people with AIDS (which happened annually alongside the professionals' big conferences). He said he had asked everyone coming to 'tell their story' and I thought that was fascinating and asked what he was going to do with them. He said that he wanted to send them to a publisher to get them published. I said the publisher would send them right back, because that was not how things worked, but I was a writer and would love to put them together. I then wrote to the Department of Health (UK, we both lived in London - I still do - and I was a researcher used to getting grants) for some money to pay interviewers to go to the conference to interview people to supplement the stories people sent in. Voila, the book was born. I worked very hard and got a manuscript to the publisher (Harper Collins) within months, but publishers take time and Dietmar died before the book came out in July 1992. I am very very fond of that book - and very proud of it.
HarperCollins didn't publicise it very much, but it did quite well at the time, but I took the rights back in 2017 and republished it then. I try to get some interest whenever there is a TV programme about AIDS.
You can see the links above. Happy to hear from you if. you like.
I really liked this interview and was especially interested because Istiaq Mian and I, coming from very different backgrounds and professions, have two interests in common. He might like to know that I wrote a book about people with AIDS, based wholly on deep interviews with a wide range of people with HIV/AIDS, called Wise Before their Time, stimulated by a close friendship with a young man with AIDS. Published in 1992 and again in 2017 by me. After he died, I volunteered in a hospice for four years, and wrote a book based on interviews with people working in hospice care, called Life in a Hospice, published in 2007 and again in 2017. The former is available, but rarely bought because few people are interested in AIDS anymore; the latter continues to sell.
How interesting, Ann — thanks for sharing. I’d love to read your two books. One of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve read is Mark Doty’s “Heaven’s Coast,” which chronicles his partner Wally’s death from AIDS. How sad that we stop caring about illnesses because of this or that trend. The suffering continues, and the stories deserve our attention no matter what the headlines say.
Here's the email I sent Laurie"
Hospice care: Life in a Hospice: getbook.at/Hospice
This one, although not a medical book at all, was Highly Commended by the BMA in 2008 - quite exciting at the time, because they so designated 4 or 5 books in a category and one was to be chosen as Book of the Year and we authors (and publishers) were invited to an event to find out who won the ‘big’ one. I didn’t, but it was quite a big deal to get that far in the first place.
AIDS: Wise Before their Time: getbook.at/Wise
I think this is probably my favourite of all my books, because the people we interviewed were so incredibly vulnerable - young, stigmatised and dying! It can’t get much worse than that. Their stories were so moving about how they told their parents and partners that they were diagnosed, how they coped with everyday living, how they felt about themselves. There’s probably some overlap with other conditions, but nothing was ever so stigmatising as AIDS!
They are both very moving for different reasons and have meant I have had a long interest in death, which I write about from time to time. See ‘dying’ on the list on my Substack.
Ann I'm in the same camp as Josh and would love to read these books. Wise Before Their Time particularly interests me. Thanks so much for listening and for sharing the links. While that era may be forgotten, I hope the lessons will stay and I'm sure your book does that.
Yes, it is much too forgotten and much too little written about. I didn't set out to do such an original project, but was having lunch with my friend who had AIDS (named Dietmar Bolle, he was an 'AIDS activist', and AIDS nurse) and he was organsing an international conference of people with AIDS (which happened annually alongside the professionals' big conferences). He said he had asked everyone coming to 'tell their story' and I thought that was fascinating and asked what he was going to do with them. He said that he wanted to send them to a publisher to get them published. I said the publisher would send them right back, because that was not how things worked, but I was a writer and would love to put them together. I then wrote to the Department of Health (UK, we both lived in London - I still do - and I was a researcher used to getting grants) for some money to pay interviewers to go to the conference to interview people to supplement the stories people sent in. Voila, the book was born. I worked very hard and got a manuscript to the publisher (Harper Collins) within months, but publishers take time and Dietmar died before the book came out in July 1992. I am very very fond of that book - and very proud of it.
HarperCollins didn't publicise it very much, but it did quite well at the time, but I took the rights back in 2017 and republished it then. I try to get some interest whenever there is a TV programme about AIDS.
You can see the links above. Happy to hear from you if. you like.