NEW TITLE
JONATHAN BALL PUBLISHERS
MARCH
A Wilder Life
Journey of an Adventuring Doctor
Joan Louwrens
Biography / Memoir / Medical March 2021 9781776191123 | £9.99 B-format Paperback | 260pp TERRITORY: World English ex. S. Africa
A doctor follows her calling to practise medicine in wild, remote places Dr Joan Louwrens was always drawn to wild places, which were balm to her soul. When her husband died, leaving her alone with two small daughters to raise, she threw herself wholeheartedly into ‘adventure medicine’, seeking out the world’s most remote corners – on land and at sea – to practise her healing, both her own and others'. Working in wild places from the Kruger Park to the Australian Outback, the Atlantic Ocean islands, and both the south and north poles, ‘Doctor Joan’ dealt with a vast range of medical issues, from rabies to deep-vein thrombosis, childbirth to wisdom-tooth extraction, catatonia to depression. Showing an eagerness to learn and a humility that isn’t always a given in her profession, and with a wry eye and a sympathetic outlook, Joan Louwrens has written a memoir that’s a poignant and often funny story of a life lived to the full. DR JOAN LOUWRENS is a South African medical doctor with additional qualifications in family medicine, anaesthetics, and tropical medicine. Initially a general practitioner with a special interest in palliative care, she swerved onto an unconventional medical path that saw her working on all seven continents and some oceans in between, sometimes with her two daughters in tow. Her home is a wild piece of land near Knysna on the South African coast. 30