James Medhurst

James Medhurst

As a child, I was very successful in my schoolwork but found it difficult to make friends. I went to Cambridge University but dropped out after a year due to severe depression and spent most of the next year in a therapeutic community, before returning to Cambridge to complete my degree. I first identified myself as autistic in 1999 while I was studying psychology in London but I was not officially diagnosed until 2004 because of a year travelling in Australia and a great deal of NHS bureaucracy. I spent four years working for the BBC as a question writer for the Weakest Link but I am now studying law with the intention of training to be a solicitor. My hobbies include online poker and korfball, and I will be running the London Marathon in 2007. I now have many friends and I am rarely depressed but I remain single.

Articles by James Medhurst

Results 1 to 10 of 22

Disabled on Big Brother

  • 05 August 2008
  • 4 comments

One of the earliest of my recruits on Weakest Link was a blind radio producer from Ayrshire called Michael Hughes. He is now nine weeks into his stay in the Big Brother house

You don’t have to be mad to work here…

  • 20 May 2008
  • 1 comment

It is not new for political figures to be affected by mental illness – Winston Churchill was famously manic depressive

Nowhere to run

  • 17 March 2008
  • 1 comment

James Medhurst points out that the purpose of sport is not to create a level playing field but rather to compare like with like, especially within the context of the Paralympics.

Incitement to Confusion

  • 23 January 2008

While the government's attitude to disabled people seems contradictory, the media's remains profoundly unsupportive

Making perfect babies

  • 07 December 2007

James Medhurst turns his gaze on the controversial issue of selective abortion

Scientific illiteracy

  • 31 October 2007
  • 1 comment

Novel educational techniques such as phonics may be trendy but where is the proof that they do any good?

Looking for work is hard work

  • 24 September 2007
  • 1 comment

Being disabled means rarely finding the right job, irrespective of one's potential

No place for tradition

  • 30 August 2007
  • 1 comment

Nostalgia for dated public transport systems does not make them any more accessible for those with disabilities

Charities are hamstrung by the law

  • 24 July 2007
  • 10 comments

One would have thought in a liberal democracy the promotion of debate and free speech is inherently beneficial, whether one agrees with its content or not

Anyone care about carers?

  • 28 June 2007
  • 51 comments

They talk a good talk, but do the politicians or anyone else for that matter really care about the carers

Tiananmen Square

20 years on

Desperately seeking democracy

Nina Power

Newspeak's legacy

Bamboozle, baffle and blindside

Television

Simon Schama

Simplistic Simon says: “Look at me, everyone!”

Theatre

Liberal guilt

Watch out for the bleeding-heart liberal

Vernon Bogdanor

Worse than Profumo

End of the party

Nicky Wire

The way I see it

Nicky Wire: The way I see it

Vote!

Will China rule the world?

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