Joanna Bourke: 'Speaking about suffering helps cope with it'

The author of The Story of Pain explains how an agonising hospital stay prompted her to explore an experience felt very differently down the agesPeople are always asking me why I write about extreme forms of violence. I know their subtext: “Why is a mild-mannered woman like you so obsessed with hatred, dismembered bodies, and killing?”In all honesty, I don’t know what draws me to these topics. Bloodthirsty aggression is just so interesting. This is why, a few years ago, I surpr