Poetry in Practice

Deborah Alma is a a poet and writer who conceived her role as The Emergency Poet as a fun way of bringing poetry to people. A mix of the serious, the therapeutic and the theatrical, the Emergency Poet offers consultations inside her vintage ambulance and prescribes poems as cures. This has proved hugely popular at literary and music festivals, conferences and medical schools and been featured in a programme on the BBC. An experienced workshop facilitator and teacher of poetry and creative writing, she has also used poetry to help communicate with people with dementia and at the end of their lives. She was the Writer in Residence for the NHS conference on Mental Health and Wellbeing. She has published two highly popular anthologies of poetry, ‘The Emergency Poet-An Anti-Stress Anthology’ and ‘The Everyday Poet- Poems to Live By’ as well as a book of her own poems, ‘Dirty Laundry’.

Professor John Gillies was Chair of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland from 2010 to 2014. During this time, he focused on leadership and quality improvement in healthcare. He has published on medical ethics, philosophy of medicine, medical humanities, and primary healthcare policy. He co-directs the Compassion Initiative within the Global Health Academy, which works across disciplines to use the growing evidence for compassion in workplaces including healthcare. He is an Honorary Professor of General Practice at the University of Edinburgh and Deputy Director of Scottish School of Primary Care, which works nationally and internationally on developing evidence for practice and policy. He edited ‘Tools of the Trade – Poems for New Doctors’, a hugely popular poetry anthology. The third edition will published jointly by Scottish Poetry Library and Polygon Press in April 2019.

Simon Callow is a critically acclaimed actor, director and writer. He has appeared on the stage and in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral, A Room with a View and Amadeus. His books include ‘Being an Actor’, ‘Love is Where it Falls’, a theatrical memoir ‘My Life in Pieces’, and, most recently, the highly acclaimed ‘Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World’.