‘This man knows he’s dying as surely as I do’: a doctor’s dispatches from the NHS frontline

As lockdown is relaxed, many in the NHS are left reeling. Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke shares her experience working with coronavirus patients, and her fears of a second wave

Inferno; What Have I Done? – fearless accounts of postpartum psychosis

Catherine Cho and Laura Dockrill are painfully honest about the horrors they experienced as new mothers in the grip of a terrible illness

The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith review – unwinding with nature

A life-affirming study of the pleasures of tending a plot or garden and soothing your mind

The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith; The Natural Health Service by Isabel Hardman – review

A fascinating pair of books on the therapeutic potential of the natural world

Sitopia by Carolyn Steel review – big questions about food

An ‘all-you-can-eat buffet of thoughts’

Isabel Hardman: ‘One of my most exciting botanical finds was in a Glasgow car park’

The journalist and author on how nature can boost mental health treatment, even on lockdown

Endell Street by Wendy Moore review – the suffragette surgeons

A fascinating, carefully researched study of life partners who became pioneering army hospital doctors in the first world war

The Better Half by Sharon Moalem review – on the genetic superiority of women

Women live longer than men. We know Covid-19 is killing more men than women. This book is an antidote to the myth of the ‘weaker sex’

In brief: The Bass Rock; Radical Acts of Love; Letters of Note: Mothers – review

The subjugation of women throughout history, how to accept death without despair and a selection of letters about mothers

From splendid to stressful: a short history of isolation

Not that long ago, the concept of isolation was seen as something of a luxury