Shadows in Wonderland
- a hospital Odyssey

Shadows in Wonderland cover

Published 7 February 2008

By Colin Ludlow

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120pp £9.99

ISBN: 978-1-905140-20-6

‘Medicine is not just about science. It’s also all about stories, and about the mingling of narratives among doctors, and between them and their patients.’

Read the book review on Pulse Today;
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=20&storycode=4118669

'The combination of one man’s personal experience of the NHS, together with a brilliant analysis of what is wrong with the system and how it goes wrong, makes for a compelling and illuminating read for everyone. It should be required reading, a daily catechism, for all officials from the health secretary down who are responsible for our national health
Nina Bawden, Novelist

'... a frontier story of our times'
Antony Gormley, Sculptor

'Wonderful: honest, interesting, compassionate, well-written....it makes you understand how it feels to become a long-term patient.'
Sophie Balhetchet, producer and Chair of Women in Film &TV

'Colin Ludlow masterfully combines a blistering personal account of his adventures in a London mega-hospital with a series of witty, perceptive and illuminating essays on the place of those institutions in Western culture.'
Howard Schuman, broadcaster and dramatist


When television producer Colin Ludlow was admitted to hospital for an operation, he expected to be home in ten days. In the event, he ended up staying for five months, nearly died on several occasions, contracted MRSA, and was still recovering from his experiences more than three years later.

In Shadows in Wonderland he tells his story, and takes a fascinating philosophical journey through chronic illness as he explores its wider significance. The book is a moving account of how the author pieced together the shattered fragments of his life and sought to make sense of them again. It is the record of a quest – which we all face – for health and wholeness in a fractured, disjointed world.

About the author

Colin Ludlow wrote articles and reviews for New Society, the TLS, Alan Ross’s London Magazine and Plays & Players before embarking on a career in television drama. He worked for the BBC and in the independent sector, firstly as a script editor, and subsequently as a producer. His credits include The Scarlet Pimpernel, a highly-praised adaptation of PD James’ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, and a number of award-winning TV films.

Contents

1. The Garden
2. A Break with Tradition
3. Parking
4. Wonderland
5. Waiting
6. Buildings
7. ITU to HIV
8. Falling
9. Fictions
10. Prague
11. Charing Cross
12. Fear
13. MRSA
14. Prison
15. Shadows
16. The Other Side of the Bed
17. Staff
18. Death
19. The Story of the Stent 1
20. My Day in Casualty
21. The Story of the Stent 2
22. The Surgeon’s Foot
23. The Story of the Stent 3
24. The Story of the Stent 4
25. Eating
26. Side Effects
27. Curtains
28. Signs and Meanings
29. Wholeness
30. Envoi: Home

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