Elephant – Gillian Shirreffs (Pre-Order)

Elephant by Gillian Shirreffs

Published by: Into Books
Format: Hardback
Pages: 256
Publication: June 2025
ISBN: 9781738514908

“Elephant is a book that found me. I’m glad that you have now found it. The book that found me is about mortality. My own mortality.” Gillian Shirreffs

Elephant is the story of a writer diagnosed with breast cancer.
Gillian has been writing about illness for the last 18 years. At first, she didn’t have an option. She had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was on bedrest, having lost the feeling from her toes to her chest. She was on her own for long periods and was bored.
If emails, text messages and tweets are the letters of today, then it might not be too grand to call Elephant an epistolary for our times.

TESTIMONIES

“Elephant is about Shirreffs waiting — to be seen, to be told, to be treated, to be scared, to be relieved, to be healed, to be again. Her contemporary notes share the twin burdens of illness and treatment, but also care as communion. A masterpiece.”
Victor Montori M.D.
Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester

“Written entirely in the media of our time – emails, text messages, social media posts – this book is a rare and wonderful thing. Using her own body as the canvas, and tracing the scars etched upon it by multiple medical interventions, Gillian Shirreffs has laid bare the physical and emotional impact of a life-threatening diagnosis. But she has done so with such humanity and hope that we are left in no doubt about the strength of the human spirit and our will to survive.”
Elissa Soave
Author of Ginger and Me, Graffiti Girls

“A heartfelt, intimate story. The author’s ability to show us under the skin of her journey is compelling. A must-read.”
Sandra Ireland
Author of Beneath the Skin, Sight Unseen, The Unmaking of Ellie Rook

“This honest and very personal account of Gillian’s experience will resonate with many readers. The book addresses fundamental life issues in such an accessible and relatable way. I have no doubt it will bring inspiration to readers.”
Gillian Hailstones
CEO, Beatson Cancer Charity

“Elephant is a smart and witty verbatim record of illness that allows us to name the undercurrents we often try to gloss over. We delve into each page and know: this is strength; this is terror; this is putting one foot in front of another, one word after another; this is how we might record a time when our relationship to all words, to all things, is in movement. Gillian is a funny, forthright guide and Elephant is an assertive, bright and tender beast of a book.”
Dr Elizabeth Reeder
Senior lecturer in Creative Writing at University of Glasgow; author of An Archive of Happiness, Ramshackle, Fremont

“Moving, witty and inspiring.”
Olga Wojtas
Writer, journalist and former Scottish editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement; author of the Miss Blaine’s Prefect Series

“A moving, heartbreaking yet funny and frank look at a terrifying time, told through shared moments with friends and family. A real insight into Gillian’s life but one which will resonate with so many. I’m also in love with her parents and I don’t even know them!”
Laura Boyd
Entertainment reporter at STV News; co-host of What’s On Scotland

Elephant is such an important book — sharp, modern, moving and unflinchingly honest. It is also brave, bold and brilliant. Just like the talent that is Dr Gillian Shirreffs.
Heather Suttie
TV and radio presenter; newspaper columnist

 

Gillian Shirreffs

Gillian Shirreffs is a Glasgow-based writer and researcher who has a Doctor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. In her thesis she explored the relationship between object and illness, with specific reference to multiple sclerosis. The creative element of her doctorate is Brodie (which became her published, debut novel), is narrated by an object. The idea for this method of interrogation came during months of bed rest.

Gillian’s work has appeared in thi wurd magazine, The Interpreter’s House, The Polyphony, The Common Breath, and in the anthologies Tales from a Cancelled Country and Alternating Current, amongst others. In a former life she was an HR director, living and working on both sides of the Atlantic. In another former life, she was an English teacher.

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