Isabel Hardman

It is our pleasure to welcome Isabel Hardman to Edinburgh to celebrate publication of Fighting for Life: The Twelve Battles that Made Our NHS, and the Struggle for Its Future; a gripping and provocative exploration of the National Health Service, told through the most critical moments in its history, and published for the 75th anniversary of its foundation.

Endless A&E waiting times. Nurses' strikes. Delayed operations. In its 75th year, the National Health Service is arguably facing its most challenging battles yet. Since its foundation in 1948, it has been a cornerstone of British life, making history again and again - from the first 'test tube baby', to the Coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile, the NHS has also become a battleground for some of the fiercest political contests of our time, perceived either as a national treasure that needs to be preserved at all costs, or as a lumbering piece of state machinery in need of renovation.

In Fighting for Life, award-winning journalist Isabel Hardman tells the gripping story of a beloved institution through the people who keep it alive - its nurses, its doctors, its patients and the politicians who decide its fate. Drawing on interviews with key decision-makers, from former Prime Ministers and Health Secretaries to NHS bosses, as well as access to the patients and keyworkers at the beating heart of the health service, she reveals with trademark incisiveness a chequered history that is by turns uplifting and alarming.

Isabel Hardman is the Assistant Editor of the Spectator and author of books including Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, a Sunday Times bestseller. In 2015 she was named the youngest ever Political Journalist of the Year by the Political Studies Association. She appears regularly on TV and radio, including Have I Got News for You, The Andrew Marr Show, The News Quiz, Today programme, Question Time and Sky News. She also writes columns for The Times, The Guardian, i, The Observer, Evening Standard, and the Daily Telegraph.