This novella-in-flash tells the story of Cassie and Susan, both of whom contracted polio during one of the last outbreaks in the UK in the 1970s. Joanna shows how Cassie, a young girl of eleven at the time, and Susan, a newly qualified teacher, manage the experience of being in an iron-lung and learn to breathe again. After they leave hospital, we follow their different journeys as they slowly manage without the ventilator and each make a new life. This engrossing novella is striking in many ways, not least in how vividly it portrays life inside an iron lung and how frightening and painful it is to breathe unaided.
— Jude Higgins, judge of the 2026 Bath Novella-in-Flash Award

Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-82-7; 133mm x 203mm; 94pp

£10.99 GBP