Palliative care doctor and bestselling author to discuss new book at last ever Chipping Norton Literary Festival

Dr Rachel Clarke will discuss The Story of a Heart at Chipping Norton Theatre on Thursday, December 12.

The book has already been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and awarded a book of the year award by The Spectator, New Statesman and New Scientist.

Rachel’s latest book tells the true story of how one family’s grief is transformed into a lifesaving gift through a heart transplant procedure.

The story follows the urgent journey of one nine-year-old girl’s heart as it helps save the life of a nine-year-old boy whose heart is failing.

It also looks at the history of the remarkable medical innovations that make heart transplant procedures possible.

Released in September this year, the book follows on from her The Sunday Times bestselling releases, Dear Life and Breathtaking.

Breathtaking, which has now been made into a popular ITV drama, tells the story of NHS doctors working to save lives during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Despite founding the Hospice Ukraine and continuing to work as an NHS palliative care nurse, Rachel still finds time to write regularly for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet.

Organisers of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival announced last month that this would be the final event after running the festival for 12 years.

Since 2012, the festival, formed by Chipping Norton resident and best-selling author Clare Mackintosh, has welcomed over 1,000 writers in over 550 events.

Included in that list are well-known authors such as David Baddiel, Jo Brand, Candice Carty-Williams, Lee Child, Frank Gardner, Natalie Haynes and Armando Iannucci.

Alongside the live events, the festival has worked to deliver a programme for local schools reaching around 10,000 children and young people.

Liz Sich, acting chair of trustees for the festival, said: “The trustees would like to pay tribute to and thank the team of volunteers who have worked so hard to make ChipLitFest such a success over the years all our supporters, partners, Friends, patrons, sponsors and advertisers, and of course our authors, illustrators and interviewers.

For more information about Dr. Rachel Clarke’s event, visit: https://www.chiplitfest.com/author/rachelclarke