Richard Barnett

Richard Barnett is a writer and broadcaster, mostly on the history of science and medicine, and a poet. He studied medicine in London before becoming a historian, and taught at Cambridge, UCL, and other leading institutions for more than a decade. In 2011 he received one of the first Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellowships.

Richard's latest book is 'The Book of the Human Body', co-written with Professor Vivienne Lo. His first book, 'Medical London: City of Diseases: City of Cures', was a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4, and his 'The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration', an international bestseller, was described in the Guardian as 'superbly lucid and erudite'. His 'Dedalus Book of Gin' is now out in paperback, and was Nick Lezard's choice in the Guardian. 'Crucial Interventions: An Illustrated Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Nineteenth-Century Surgery', was published in 2015, and 'The Smile Stealers: The Fine & Foul Art of Dentistry', in 2017.

'Seahouses', his award-winning first poetry collection, came out in 2015, and his second collection, 'Wherever We Are When We Come To The End', in 2021. He has written for the Lancet and the London Review of Books, and has made many appearances on TV & radio.