“There is something underneath” is a comment heard too often in Sierra Leone, when people encounter someone with epilepsy or mental health issues or an Ebola survivor. What they mean is that there must be a demon or witch causing the affliction; a curse rather than a medical condition. Not that the rest of the […]

Most people reading this will be glad to consign 2020 to the “deleted items” box, or, for those of you who now live by Zoom, to push the “leave meeting” icon on this year. But there has been one silver lining: a heightened appreciation of the problems caused by depression, stress and trauma. People across […]

Ever since the novels Vanity Fair (1847) and Jane Eyre (1848), the orphan has been a standard fixture in literature. From Oliver Twist to Harry Potter, via Tom Sawyer and David Copperfield, readers have followed the difficult lives of vulnerable young people as they are forced to make their way in the world. Over the […]