UWE lecturer on shortlist Wellcome Trust Book Prize

A senior philosophy lecturer at the University of the West of England has been shortlisted for an international literary prize.

Havi Carel, 38, is one of six authors up for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, a new award for works on the theme of health, illness or medicine, for her non-fiction work Illness: The Cry of the Flesh.

Dr Carel, who lives in Montpelier, is one of just 120 women in the UK to suffer from the potentially life-threatening lung disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM).

Dr Carel wrote the book aiming to address the nature of illness and the changes it can bring to the affected person rather than from a purely physiological point of view.

Dr Carel said: "The book was incredibly therapeutic for me to write. It's not a self-help book but attempts to respond to the challenges of, not just living life, but living life well with illness. It's a great honour to be shortlisted. It's an encouraging sign that the Wellcome Trust have shortlisted a philosophy book."

Comedian and former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand chaired the judging panel. The winner of the £25,000 prize will be announced on November 4.