Rachel Clarke
Dr Rachel Clarke is an NHS palliative care doctor and the author of three Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction books. The most recent of these, Breathtaking (2021), was adapted into an acclaimed television series, broadcast on ITV in 2024. It reveals how she and her colleagues confronted the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dear Life (2020), depicting her work in an NHS hospice, was shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Your Life in My Hands(2017) documents life as a junior doctor. Before going to medical school, Rachel was a broadcast journalist. She produced and directed current affairs documentaries focusing on subjects such as Al Qaeda, the Iraq War and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She continues to write regularly for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet among others, and appears regularly on television and radio. Inspired by a visit to Ukraine during the conflict in late 2022, Rachel founded a UK-registered charity, Hospice Ukraine, which supports the work of local palliative care teams in Ukraine. Her new book, The Story of a Heart, is a moving and unforgettable story about how one family’s grief was transformed into a lifesaving gift.
Videos
Life as a doctor in the hospice - "Your Life in My Hands" | Dr Rachel Clarke | 5x15
Recorded at 5x15 at The Tabernacle in London, November 2017.
5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There
Dear Life: A Doctor's Story in a hospice | Dr Rachel Clarke | 5x15
Past Events
5x15 returns to The Tabernacle for an evening of inspiring storytelling from a superb line-up of speakers.
SOLD OUT
Acclaimed author Polly Morland speaks about the NHS and her new book A Fortunate Woman, with doctor and best-selling writer Rachel Clarke.
Join us in February for an evening of urgent and immersive storytelling from 5x15.
5 speakers, 15 minutes each. An evening of innovation, ideas and inspiration.