We are pleased to offer the late Cecil Helman‘s insightful work, ‘An Amazing Murmur of the Heart: Feeling the Patient’s Beat’ (Hammersmith Books, 2014), for review. Whilst expressions of interest are welcome from across the medical humanities, this book may be of particular interest to clinicians and healthcare professionals.
Cecil Helman – GP, medical anthropologist and acclaimed writer – looks back on a life-time of encounters with patients to ask ‘Where has the patient gone?’ and answers that patients ‘are still here, waiting for their doctors to notice them again, to shift their attention away from all their magic machines and high tech tests, and to listen to their stories again. And hidden away in those stories, to hear the faint, almost inaudible, murmuring of their hearts.’
An Amazing Murmur of the Heart mingles those patients’ stories with Cecil’s understanding that medicine is an art, though rooted in science, and that by listening to what the sick are saying – not necessarily just in words – healthcare professionals can do more than simply cure symptoms – they can heal.
If you are keen to review ‘An Amazing Murmur of the Heart’ (approximately 1,000-1,500 words maximum in length), then please email our reviews editor with a short explanation of why you are well placed to review the book.