In search of lost times

When the brilliant Renaissance scholar Sir John Hale had a stroke at the age of 69 he was written off by doctors as a hopeless case. His wife, Sheila Hale, refused to give up. In an extract from her moving new book, she recounts her painful battles with the NHS and her search to rediscover the husband she once knew.

If you have ears…

In Equals, Adam Phillips explores one of the greatest and most fundamental gifts man has - the ability to listen and be listened to

Make-believe medicine

Do placebos work? New research suggests they work surprisingly well - in fact rather better than some conventional drugs. By Jerome Burne.