Martyn Evans and Jane Macnaughton, together with our now completed PhD student Rolf Ahlzen, have been part of an international group of medical humanities scholars which has been meeting since 2002 to publish a series of linked books describing aspects of the patient’s journey from first symptoms to the conclusion of an illness episode. The chapters of each volume have had input from the entire writing team and aim to explore the patient’s experience at each stage of the process by reflecting on philosophical, literary and artistic perspectives on medical phenomena. Examples are symptoms and signs (Vol 1), classification of disease (Vol 2) and telling and explaining in diagnosis (Vol 2). Volume two also deals in more detail with the idea of ‘cool intimacy’ discussed in our Lancet essay. Volume 3: Treatment is in preparation.