Gabriel Weston was born in 1970 in London. She is a surgeon, author and TV presenter. She was one of the four early presenters of the BBC Two medical series Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.
What’s your earliest memory?
I remember sitting in a cot in a room with a red carpet. I’ve checked it with my mum and if it’s a true memory rather than something that I’ve imagined, then I was probably about 18 months old.
Who are your heroes?
I think the closest I ever came to having a childhood hero was probably Adam from Adam and the Ants for his crazy music, flamboyant costumes and wild make-up. I definitely have an adult hero. He’s an Icelandic pianist called Vikingur Ólafsson. I first heard about him on BBC Radio 4 a few years ago and listened to a recording of him playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I am obsessed with him. Very few weeks go by when I’m not listening to him.
What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
My current specialist subject is all the chemicals and bits of equipment that are necessary for cleaning a swimming pool. In six months’ time I won’t remember any of this, but right now if I had to sit in that chair, I would be so confident on the subject.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
The place that I would want to be is inside a man’s body. I would just love to have the experience of being a man at any point in history to see what it would be like not having to live in the patriarchy as a woman.
What book last changed your thinking?
Grace Spence Green’s upcoming memoir To Exist as I Am, detailing her story of becoming paralysed as a fourth-year medicine student. It’s not a misery memoir; it’s a book that’s a very angry call to arms about how most of the world sees disabled people as if they’re not full human beings. When I was reading it I felt so guilty of so many of the things that she was calling people out for. It’s definitely changed the way that I see wheelchair users and disabled people.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“Don’t go global”, which was given to me by a dear friend. What she meant by that was when you’re looking at a situation and it’s unbearable, all you have to do is get through the next hour, don’t think about the whole thing.
What’s currently bugging you?
Without a doubt the predominance of Donald Trump in everyone’s conversation, in everyone’s thoughts all over the world. It’s bugging me profoundly.
What single thing would make your life better?
It would definitely be seeing my 18-year-old daughter. She’s in Honduras at the moment. Seeing her is the thing that I would love most. I’ve just got to get through until July.
When were you happiest?
I’m going to say now because I hate nostalgia – I can’t stand the idea that the best is over. There were also three years when I was a child when we lived in Washington DC, and those years are sunlit in my memory.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
I was really undecided between medicine and law. I think standing in court and arguing for a living would be really fun. But if not that, then something artistic like a sculptor or something abstract.
Are we all doomed?
Absolutely not. I think progressive thinking will prevail. I think, individually, we’re all broken as human beings but I definitely don’t think we’re doomed collectively as a species.
Gabriel Weston’s “Alive” is published by Jonathan Cape
[See also: Our overdiagnosis epidemic]
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This article appears in the 19 Mar 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Golden Age