Varya Shaw

I'm interviewing academics at the University of East London for a research brochure. The other day I met someone called Barbara Taylor. "So what's the real world impact of your book going to be?" I asked chirpily. "Well, it's going to be published by Penguin," she replies. "It's about mental health, a mixture of historical study and memoir as I've spent three years researching the asylum system, and I was in Friern Barnet hospital in the 1980s. Books like that tend to attract a lot of attention." She's only The Barbara Taylor - world famous historian of feminism! Actually I've never heard of her, but one has a way of noticing when one is the presence of brilliance and a quick google afterwards confirmed I had been. The book is about how we look after each other - everyone needs looking after, mental health is just one example of that. She says that question is nothing new, it's always been a preoccupation of feminism. But th...

Been writing about public health for HSJ. Compared to the NHS white paper, which was a gripping if frightening read, the public health white paper is quite frankly boring. But that is partly just style. What is actually happening is fascinating - public health is returning to its ancestral home in local government. Power tussles are taking place between directors of social services and the new directors of public health. Health improvement and public health commissioning advice are opening up to any willing provider (or any qualified provider). Most strikingly, this localist coalition is setting up municipal public health with lots of responsibility, very little money and virtually no national legislative support. Health and wellbeing boards could make up for this by being powerful entities that ensure decision-making is high profile and in the public interest, and can challenge central government. But if they are not, the future doesn't look so bright.