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BEN PLATTS-MILLS
BEN PLATTS-MILLS
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July 2023
About a fatal accident at the Manhattan Project in 1946. On confidence, the politics of science and the role of human bodies in quantum mechanics.
July 2023
A profile of Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb'. On physics, poetry and negative capability.
April 2023
About my step mother, a zoologist and writer who had a stroke in 2010. On the violent history of taxonomy, and on re-valuing unconscious lives.
Oct 2020
On embodied memory: brain injury survivors keep on being themselves, even when they can't consciously recall events in their lives.
July 2020
About my friend Matthew, a computer scientist who had a cyst removed from his brain. On materialism, identity and teleportation.
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"An extraordinarily gifted story-teller"
- Robert Newman
I'm a UK-based writer and artist. My memoir, Tell Me The Planets, was published by Penguin in 2018. Before that I ran a life-writing project with survivors of brain injury called Who Are You Now? You can read my essays on Aeon and Psyche.
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BOOKS
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TELL ME THE PLANETS
Penguin, 2018
A memoir drawn from the 16 years I spent working with survivors of brain injury at the non-profit organisation, Headway East London. Seen here with John Gray's beautiful hardback cover design.
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"Platts-Mills founds his portrait on meticulous observation... The net effect is not only aesthetic and clinical, but political as well"
- Times Literary Suppliment
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"Probably the best book I know about what it's like to live with brain injury" - Vaughan Bell
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"An absorbing and moving account" - Penelope Lively
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"In Platts-Mills’ extraordinary book, the characters of people damaged by violence, stroke or accident of birth outshine the medical details... what really defines these individuals, even as memory fails and words elude them, is their stubborn vitality"
- Nature
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You can read an out-take from Tell Me The Planets here.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS
Writers and Readers, 1998
Many years ago I co-wrote and illustrated this documentary comic book about linguistics. It included sections on psycholinguistics and child language acquisition, the history of the English language, and contemporary political theory. It also contained a rather decent drawing of a young Noam Chomsky.
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Here are my faviourite Amazon reviews:
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"As a teacher of A level English Language I've never understood why this very useful guide was discontinued. It is truly excellent for a very wide range of abilities." - Scampo
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"I am shocked that this brilliant book is out of print... I treasure my copy and would love to see it back in print because I am always recommending it to people I encounter in my life as an educator and inset lecturer."
- M.A. Topping
AUDIO & VIDEO
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OPPENHEIMER
(July 2023)
Dan Snow interviewed me again for the History Hit podcast. This time on the life of Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb'.
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THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL THAT FOUGHT FASCISM
(March 2023)
An interview with Dan Snow for the History Hit podcast, about Saint Alban psychiatric hospital and its role in the French Resistance during World War II.
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BARBICAN SCREEN TALK: OUR LUCK HOURS
(March 2021)
In support of their Jean Dubuffet exhibition, I was invited by the Barbican to discuss Martine Deyres' brilliant film Our Lucky Hours with Sarah Lombardi, director of the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne. The film tells the story of the psychiatric hospital at Saint-Alban and inspired my essay Asylum for Aeon (Sept 2021).
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BLUE PLANET BLACK HOLE
(May 2019)
A film about ecology, climate change, acquired disability and speculative futures, commissioned by the Barbican. I interviewed Graham Naylor for this collaboration with the wonderful Nicky Deeley. We conducted most of the interview by email and used computer-generated voices to bring it into the film - a way of overcoming Graham's challenges with speech and of reflecting on the role of technology in his life. You can hear us talking in person towards the end.
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THE WORLD BEYOND MY HEAD
(May 2019)
A podcast I helped to make for Headway East London. Brain injury survivors Victoria and Lewis make a journey to University College London to interview neuropsychologist Vaughan Bell. Victoria's dad Henry, a cab driver, gives them a lift and, on the way, father and daughter share an emotional exchange.
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