Gavin Francis (born 1975) is a Scottish physician and a writer on travel and medical matters. He was raised in

Fife, Scotland Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i.e ...

and now lives in Edinburgh as a GP. His books have won many prestigious prizes.

Biography

Born in Fife in 1975, Francis studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

and joined the

Emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

at the old

Royal Edinburgh Hospital The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Morningside Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian. History The "foundational myth" has it that the hospital was founded by Dr Andrew Duncan, the elder, Andrew Duncan ...

. Having qualified as a physician, Francis spent ten years travelling on all seven continents. Francis spent time working in India and Africa, made several trips to the Arctic, and is said to have crossed Eurasia and Australasia by motorcycle. Francis was working at the

Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh The Royal Hospital for Sick Children was a hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, specialising in paediatric healthcare. Locally, it was commonly referred to simply as the "Sick Kids". The hospital provided emergency care for children from birth to ...

when he decided to undertake a 15-month position as the resident doctor with the

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...

. He arrived at the

Halley Research Station Halley Research Station is a research facility in Antarctica on the Brunt Ice Shelf operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The base was established in 1956 to study the Earth's atmosphere. Measurements from Halley led to the discov ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

via the RRS Ernest Shackleton, a supply ship, on Christmas Eve, 2002, after a two-month voyage.

Writings

Francis's experiences eventually formed the basis for his second book, ''Empire Antarctica'' (2012); his first book, ''True North: Travels in Arctic Europe'' (2008), detailed his experiences travelling in Arctic Europe from

Unst Unst (; sco, Unst; nrn, Ønst) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of . Unst ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

. His ''Adventures in Human Being'' (2015) won the Saltire Society Literary Award for non-fiction and was a

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

(BMA) book of the year. ''Empire Antarctica'' was a shortlisted finalist for a number of book awards in 2013, including the

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

and the Saltire Prize, but received its most notable honour in November 2013 at the Lennoxlove Book Festival when it was named the 2013 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust's Scottish Book of the Year. Francis has been contributing articles and reviews to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' since 2010, the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'', and the ''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'' since 2013. In addition to book reviews, his contributions have occasionally consisted of prose ruminations on medical topics such as stethoscopes and the human brain, an approach that led to his being commissioned by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

to produce a collection of essays in this style. His 2020 book ''Island Dreams'' was "a simple but sincere cartography of my own obsession with the twinned but opposing allures of island and city, of isolation and connection", and included 90 maps. In 2021 he published ''Intensive Care: A GP, a community & COVID-19'' describing his work in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Selected publications

Books

*''Intensive Care: A GP, a Community & COVID-19'' (Wellcome Collection, 2021: ) *''Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession'' (Canongate Books, 2020: ) *''Shapeshifters: A Journey Through the Changing Human Body'' (Wellcome Collection 2018) *''Adventures in Human Being'' (Profile Books 2015) *''Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence & Emperor Penguins'' (Chatto & Windus 2012) *''True North: Travels in Arctic Europe'' (Polygon 2008, 2010)

Translations

*''Empire Antarctica: Eis, Totenstille & Kaiserpinguine'' (DuMont 2013) , in German *''Island Dreams. Mapping an Obsession: INSELN. Die Kartierung einer Sehnsucht'' (DuMont 2020) , in German

Articles

* Gavin Francis, "Changing Psychiatry's Mind" (review of

Anne Harrington Anne Harrington (born 1960) is an American science historian and the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her primary research area is the history of psychiatry, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Educati ...

, ''Mind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness'', Norton, 366 pp.; and

Nathan Filer Nathan Filer is a British writer best known for his debut novel, ''The Shock of the Fall''. This won several major literary awards, including the Costa Book of the Year and the Betty Trask Prize. It was a ''Sunday Times'' Bestseller, and has bee ...

, ''This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health: A Journey into the Heartland of Psychiatry'', London, Faber and Faber, 248 pp.), ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', vol. LXVIII, no. 1 (14 January 2021), pp. 26–29. " ntal disorders are different

rom illnesses addressed by other medical specialties Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

... To treat them as purely physical is to misunderstand their nature." " re eeds to bebased on distress and ognitive, emotional, and physicalneed rather than n psychiatricdiagnos s, which is often uncertain, erratic, and unreplicable. (p. 29.)

Awards and honours

*2013 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year: ''Empire Antarctica'' *2013 Ondaatje Prize: ''Empire Antarctica'' (shortlist) *2013 Saltire Prize Book of the Year: ''Empire Antarctica'' (shortlist) *2013 Costa Book of the Year: ''Empire Antarctica'' (shortlist) *2013 Banff Mountain Book Competition: ''Empire Antarctica'' (shortlisted finalist)

References

External links

"Antarctic Holiday: A Christmas Feast In The Loneliest Spot On Earth."
– modified excerpt from "Empire Antarctica", ''NPR.'' 20 December 2014
"Introduction to ''A Fortunate Man''."
– Gavin Francis's introduction to the 2015 reprint of

John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism ''Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...

's ''A Fortunate Man'' (1967) {{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Gavin Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People from Fife 21st-century Scottish writers 21st-century Scottish medical doctors 1975 births Living people