Holding the Border : Words from the Working Week

Holding the Border is a debut collection of poems from frontline clinical care in UK General Practice by Dr James Brockbank who was a GP in West London for nearly 30 years. The 48 poems are not marshalled into any particular category, the stories have ‘come through the door’ in random order, just as patients do. Like many clinicians Dr Brockbank is well placed to observe stories that reveal much about being human and these poems capture in word and rhythm his experience. GPs work at the interface between symptomatic illness and biomedical disease, where human suffering and distress meets the classification of scientific medicine. This is where the border lies and it is where these stories were found.  This book contributes to the canon of Medical Humanities which explores how the humanities, traditionally concerned with recording and exploring human experience, engage with specific experiences of patients, doctors, health, illness and suffering. Dr Brockbank’s poems represent the stories heard in family practice, concealed behind the mask of symptoms or disease and demonstrate the value of using the arts and creative expression to explore lived experience. This is a book that conveys the challenges and rewards of being a family doctor. It is for patients and healthcare professionals alike.