The Wellcome Trust has just announced the first ever shortlist for its new literary prize, celebrating “medicine in literature”. Jo Brand will chair the panel of judges, which includes the doctor-turned-polymath Raymond Tallis and the BBC science journalist Quentin Cooper. The shortlist is as follows:
Havi Carel, Illness
Brian Dillon, Tormented Hope (read John O’Connell’s review in this week’s magazine)
Andrea Gillies, Keeper
Allegra Goodman, Intuition
Jonny Steinberg, Three Letter Plague
Abraham Verghese, Cutting For Stone
The winner of the £25,000 prize will be announced on 4 November.