A Misalignment of the Stars by Peter Leyland
A Misalignment of the Stars Recently I suffered a painful bout of sciatica, something which I have experienced before but never with this level of intensity. I was becalmed for a few weeks, being unable to walk more than a few paces. Stairs were almost impossible to climb. Co-incidentally, however, the author Lissa Evans* with whom I have an online acquaintance, posted a compelling recommendation on social media of a book entitled To Exist As I Am by Grace Spence Green. It was subtitled A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance . Trusting in Lissa’s judgement of the book, I ordered a copy using my local library’s reservation service. It arrived within three days, and I began reading it. The book is the extraordinary story of Grace Spence Green’s journey, after suffering a spinal cord injury which paralysed her from the waist down, which gave a completely new cast to a life that was up to that point her training as a fourth-year medical stu...