The Anatomy of Us

My dysfunctional NHS love story

So I wrote a rom-com. This might come as a surprise to those of you familiar with my usual non-fiction writing about heavy-hitting issues in healthcare and reproductive justice. But as Walt Whitman wrote, ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’, and as it happens, this gal is also creatively ‘large’, and she reeeeally enjoys writing fiction, too.

Today I’m thrilled - and just as surprised as anyone could be - to announce The Anatomy of Us: A Love Story, available from 8 May exclusively on audio from Audible UK, narrated by the exquisitely talented, Olivier-winning and Oscar- and Bafta-nominated actor, Jessie Buckley.

The Anatomy of Us is the story of two doctors - Becca, a burnt-out, hot mess of an A&E registrar - and Andrew, an apparently perfect anaesthetist, blessed with generational wealth and ridiculous bone structure - who are thrown together on a snowy New Year’s Eve at Edinburgh’s busiest hospital. As they begin an unlikely affair, they tell each other increasingly complex lies about their pasts and their presents - futile attempts to preserve the facade of being healthcare heroes, with their sh*t held tightly together at all times. As Becca and Andrew struggle to find their way towards each other - and their true selves - they navigate shifts from hell, horrible bosses, mental health crises, booze, donuts, a half-marathon and - last but certainly not least - the Scottish weather.

How did this happen? Well, last summer, I was talking to a lovely acquaintance who works in commissioning for Audible, and we started dancing around the idea of writing a love story set in the world of healthcare with which I’m so intimately familiar (having worked as a midwife now for nearly twelve years). At first, my mind threw up loads of obstacles:

1. I’m already writing another book, a major non-fiction project called Birth Wars, which is taking up no small amount of time.

2. What will my existing readership think of me taking such a dramatically different direction?

3. What if it’s bad? Like, really, embarrassingly, career-endingly bad?

But then a funny thing happened. When I bounced the idea for the project off those nearest and dearest to me, they all thought it was a great idea. Not just great, but, like, incredibly cool. And it could be really fun, and fun is a thing that’s often lacking from my very responsible, organised, 47-year-old life. And waaay before I was ever a non-fiction author or even a midwife, I used to write fiction, a million years ago, and I really enjoyed it, and was even sometimes told I was quite good at it. Why balk at the chance to be paid to practice a form I used to love, and which I’ve always thought about taking up again? And also, as Instagram platitudes always remind us, what if it all goes right?

These were all persuasive arguments, but perhaps the most persuasive one was the fact that I was actively encouraged to tie in some of the themes that are already intrinsic aspects of my writing and advocacy. OK, maybe the intricacies of the female reproductive system aren’t well suited to this genre, but crazy work environments, the cognitive dissonance of being a healthcare worker in a broken system, and the inconvenient awfulness of anxiety, panic and depression are all juicy topics for fiction. So yes, The Anatomy of Us is most definitely a love story, but there’s a lot of my usual ‘stuff’ in there too.

And here’s the biggest surprise of all: once I got out of my own way and threw myself into writing this story, I absolutely loved doing it. I became obsessed with the characters. I lost myself in the joy of writing dialogue. I made playlist after playlist for different scenes and moods. I had an excuse to re-read the back catalogues of some of my rom-com heroes, David Nicholls and Nora Ephron, for inspiration. And oh my God, I do love my serious non-fiction stuff, but after years of having to research and reference Every. Single. Bloody. Line of my usual books, it was a blessed relief to realise that, with this project, I could just sit down at my desk and make stuff up.

I hope you’ll love what I made up. Check it out - The Anatomy of Us will be released for download on 8 May from Audible UK, and you can pre-order it now. And if it’s not your thing, and you’re here for the other, more heavyweight birthy stuff, that’s cool - scroll on. There’s lots more of that to come from me in a while. But for now, this is me, too, and I’m kind of into it.

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What I’m loving this week

One of the most delightful surprises in the aforementioned fiction back catalogues was Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls, a bittersweet coming-of-age tale of first love. I listened to it on audio last summer, brilliantly narrated by Rory Kinnear, and I still think of the characters often. When a story stays with you long after you’ve finished, you know it’s special.

I’m a die-hard fan of the New York Times’ Modern Love podcast, featuring essays from the paper’s long-running series alongside commentary and personal reflection from famous names. (Anyone else sensing a ‘love’ theme here? Yep, I’ve always been a secret romantic at heart.)

My long-time heartthrob Ralph Fiennes is back as a toned, taut and traumatised Odysseus in The Return, featuring Juliette Binoche as his estranged wife, Penelope. Their on-screen chemistry in The English Patient (one of my all-time favourite films) was electric, so I can’t wait to see them reunited in these roles now, nearly thirty years after that pairing.