Inhabiting the creative zone between art and science, I feel lucky to live in the time of medical humanities. I am a founder member of the NPO the Life Righting Collective www.liferighting.com where I facilitate participants in group settings on how to write effectively about their lives as a tool for mental health and community building. This grew out of my own experience that writing helps me manage my life, and also my desire to pass on the insight that creativity is a valuable birthright, and that regular creative practice is essential to wellbeing. I am a published author, playwright and poet, an amateur dancer, a hiker, and I work part time as a family doctor, so life is fairly busy and very rewarding. I have two grown sons, and am in a relationship with another quirky doctor, musician, dancer in the road and poet called Ian Bell - see his profile. Together we have formed a duo called Further Ado, and we look forward to the possibility of busking as we travel.

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

Ian and I will be travelling and hopefully busking in Europe from 12th September to 17th October. My son Jonathan has couchsurfed a lot as both a traveller and a host, and he recommends couchsurfing as a great way to meet wonderful locals and travellers. We are keen to follow our noses and see what life has in store. Couchsurfing is such an incredible resource, helping us to get to know each other. Thank you couchsurfing!

Interessen

• writing
• dancing
• reading
• music
• hiking
• swimming
• meeting new people

Musik, Filme und Bücher

World music (particularly Balkan, Middle Eastern, Latin, Malian, Algerian), Joni Mitchell, most jazz, good folk music, some modern opera, Arvo Part. My musical interests are very wide.
Movies: Gabbeh; Everything, Everywhere, All At Once; The Wife; Get Out; Other People's Lives; Black Cat, White Cat; The Big Short; Creature Comforts; and many documentaries including Alive Inside, Icarus, For They Know Not What They Do.
Books: too many to mention, but early influences were Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing and early Salman Rushdie. One of the best non-fiction books I have ever read was The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, and recent memoirs I have read (I read a huge amount of memoir as I teach life writing) that knocked me sideways were Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

Climbed to base camp Aconcagua

Lehren, lernen, teilen

I can teach writing prose and poetry, the neuroscience of creativity, how to free dance without feeling self-conscious.
I would love to learn about other cultures including music.
We would like to share the music we sing as the duo Further Ado

Was ich mit Gastgebern teilen kann

Cooking, cleaning, good company, live music as the duo Further Ado, love of poetry

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Argentina, Botswana, England, Italy, Japan, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Scotland, Swaziland, Switzerland, United States, Wales

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

South Africa, Zimbabwe