Gavin Francis

Gavin Francis

Author and Physician

A man wearing a black sweater over a white shirt sits at a desk with a stethoscope draped around his neck, looking slightly upward.

Gavin Francis, MD, is a multi-award-winning author and GP who has worked across four continents as a surgeon, emergency physician, and medical officer with the British Antarctic Survey. He is the author of Sunday Times bestsellers Adventures in Human Being, Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change, and Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence. He has been shortlisted for such awards as the Saltire Literary Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year, the Costa Book of the Year, and the Ondaatje Prize. His writing also appears in the Wall Street JournalNPR, the London Review of Books, and others. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

The image displays the words "mental," "health," and "illness" in white and gray text on a black background, with "mental" and "health" in focus—reflecting the strength found within the unfragile mind.
As mental health diagnoses become more common and expansive, the labels meant to help us understand our suffering may instead oversimplify it.