Coventry Uni journo talks Turkey
Posted on April 25, 2008 - Filed Under Journalism, Media, Research |
Coventry journalism lecturer John Lister is not just a print journalist: he has specialised for almost 25 years in writing about the NHS, health services and health policies.
A few years ago John put a substantial book together on global changes in health care systems, which he warns is not for the faint-hearted: “I have been told that it is a one-stop cure for insomnia,” he says, “but I must have done something right, because about 18 months ago I was approached by a group of Turkish academics asking my permission to translate the book into Turkish. I was really chuffed.”
It took the volunteers many months of hard graft to translate the 340-page original into a 420-page Turkish edition, but John Lister is now the proud author of the very first book on health policy to be published in Turkish!
“I must not let it go to my head,” says John, whose English edition has been reprinted twice since 2005. “This kind of subject matter is never going to fly off the shelves like Harry Potter or airport fiction. I have yet to be recognised by a fan in the street, or asked for my autograph, and I won’t be holding my breath waiting!”
Hot off the press: launch date May 7
John had barely finished celebrating the publication of the Turkish edition before his new book, to mark this year’s 60th Anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service was ready for launch.
The NHS After 60: For Patients or Profits is a 340-page critical analysis of the six decades of the NHS, a critique of the current government’s so-called “reforms” and offers a few ideas on how a new improved NHS could result from a different line of policy.
Veteran campaigner Tony Benn has said that “everyone should read this book”.
“It effectively took me 24 years to research (the length of time I have been working on health issues) and about a month to write,” says John. “It is written in much more conversational style than the previous book, but it packs a punch and I am hoping it will reach a wide and varied audience. The NHS is the most popular and most universal of our public services: we all have an interest in defending it.”
It is to be launched at a reception in Coventry University’s Riley Lounge Executive Suite on Wednesday May 7, with invitations going to students and staff in Art & Design and Health and Life Sciences as well as academics in Warwick University, Birmingham and other neighbouring areas, local journalists and health workers.
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