Welcome to Hearty Tales – a space to discover and share stories of chronic heart disease. My name is Laura and I’ve recently returned to academia to study written representations of chronic heart conditions. I’ve set up this blog to make sure my research reaches the people it’s most relevant to.

To begin with I’ll be using this space as a diary of my work and thoughts, recording ideas, books and discoveries as I go. I’ll also be sharing some of my own experiences of living with heart failure, which I was diagnosed with in 2011. I’m not a creative writer, but I’m going to give it a go (in a public baptism of fire!) in the hope that, a bit further down the line, some of you might feel inclined to do similar. You can find out more about the aims of that aspect of the project here.

My New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to breathe some life into this blog and post regularly, so please do check back soon!