"Fabulous ... uniquely executed… engaging and emotive... thought provoking". After summer shows in Coventry, Dublin and Belfast, Disorder Contained can be seen in London at Rich Mix, Shoreditch on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th October. Details and link to tickets.

The play is designed to communicate some of the research findings of the Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000 project, including the effect of solitary confinement on mental health. Over a century ago, Dickens said it was cruel, wrong and “tampered with the brain”. So why is solitary confinement still allowed? Professor Hilary Marland (co-lead on the project) recently gave historical evidence to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into Mental Health and Deaths in Prison.

Read the article by Kirstie Brewer in Prospect magazine, informed by an interview with Prof. Marland.

Professor Hilary Marland, CHM Director, was a guest on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time' programme last week. With host Melvyn Bragg and guests Justin Champion (Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London) and Jonathan Andrews (Reader in the History of Psychiatry at Newcastle University), she discussed the early years of Bedlam, the name commonly used for the London hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate.

The programme is available on BBC iPlayer here, with further information and a reading list.

As part of the Cultural History of the NHS project, a new website has been launched to collect personal stories and memories of the National Health Service from patients, health workers and others. We'd love to hear your recollections of the NHS and what it means to you. If you would like to participate in this part of our project, please visit our People's History of the NHS website where you can tell us your stories, respond to calls for information, find out about public engagement events, and visit our Virtual Museum and People's Enclyopaedia of the NHS.