“Stories feed our imagination and take us to amazing places.”

Published: 05 March 2020

Roopa Farooki discussing her new novel 'The cure for a crime' on BBC Breakfast.

World Book Day is a UNESCO registered charity dedicated to providing every child and young person a book of their own. It’s also a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and a celebration of reading.

To celebrate World Book Day at St George’s, we spoke to alumna and successful author, Roopa Farooki. Roopa is a recent graduate of our MBBS 4 medicine course and is currently working as a junior doctor.

Alongside training and now working as a doctor, Roopa has published seven books; been awarded the John C. Laurence prize from the Authors' Foundation, in recognition of her multicultural writing; and has been awarded an Arts Council Award. Her most recent novel, ‘A Double Detectives Medical Mystery: The Cure for a Crime’’ is aimed at children and, in particular, increasing the visibility of females and children with Black and Minority Ethinc (BAME) backgrounds in science, technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM).

 “It's so important to celebrate books,” said Roopa. “Stories feed our imagination and take us to amazing places. They allow us to step into someone else's shoes, walk in someone else's world, and cross burning bridges. They build empathy, and we all need more of that, especially during these darker days.

“I started writing my first book when I was fifteen, although I didn't manage to get that one published!” she added. “I started writing seriously when I was pregnant with my first child, and living in Tooting, just around the corner from St George's.

“My books focus on the South Asian immigrant experience, and on inter-generational and family relationships. I tell stories close to my own heart.”

 “When I started medical school, my big ambition wasn't to write another literary novel, but to write something, finally, that my four children could read,” Roopa said, when asked why she had decided to write a children’s book. “They spent a lot of time helping me with clinical skills examinations, and they learned a lot of medicine that way, so I thought it would be great to write them as the heroes of my book, saving the day and solving crimes with their medical know-how.” 

Roopa’s novels often feature characters from non-traditional backgrounds. “I'm really interested in otherness, the things that make us different, as well as everything we share,” she explained. “I wanted to write about characters who experience being different, and build understanding, by making them the centre of the story.”

“When I wrote The Way Things Look To Me, about an autistic teenager and her siblings, I got a great and humbling response from readers and autism societies across the world, for showing in my book what it was like to live with autism in a family.”

Roopa’s most recent novel – A Double Detectives Medical Mystery: The Cure for a Crime – builds on this approach to encouraging and celebrating diversity. “It was the biggest motivation, when I was thinking about the series, that it might help encourage girls, BAME children, and children from diverse or difficult backgrounds, into STEM careers,” she said.

“It was important to me that there were two proud, brown girls on the cover, with stethoscope, syringe and scrubs. Representation is so important: if you can see it, you can be it, and believe that there's a place for you. And I think every child deserves to find themselves in fiction. I would love to think that this series might gain us a few more dedicated doctors for the NHS in ten years’ time, from all sorts of backgrounds.”

When asked if her time at St George’s had influenced her writing she explained, “I wouldn't have written this series if I hadn't been at St George's! All the hospital scenes are based there, and all my medical asides come directly from my experiences on the wards and on placement. And the support I had while at George's was wonderful, for my writing as well as medical career.

“I feel very proud to have been a St George's student, we were taught how important it was to be kind, to talk to our patients, and listen to them, and I use those lessons every day.”

Offering her advice to current students, she said, “As a doctor, three things are important. Be kind, be kind, be kind. To your patients, your colleagues and yourself. As a writer, share the stories only you can tell, open up your world and invite everyone in.”