Time to Think

‘‘An exemplary and detailed analysis of a place whose doctors, Barnes writes, most commonly describe it as “mad”. This is a powerful and disturbing book’ - Financial Times’ -‘‘A deeply reported, scrupulously non-judgmental account of the collapse of the NHS service, based on hundreds of hours of interviews with former clinicians and patients. It is also a jaw-dropping insight into failure: failure of leadership, of child safeguarding and of the NHS’ - Sunday Times’ -‘‘This book is a testament to the moral courage of Hutchinson and colleagues who sought to expose the chaos and insanity they saw while practising by stealth the in-depth therapy they believed young people deserved … And Hannah Barnes has honoured them with her dogged, irreproachable yet gripping account’ - The Times’ -‘‘This incredibly important book shows that we still don’t know how many children were damaged for life. I want every institution and every politician who pontificates about gender to read this book and ask what happened to all those lost girls and boys - and why they were complicit’ - Daily Telegraph’ -‘‘At times, the world Barnes describes feels like some dystopian novel. But it isn’t, of course. It really happened, and she has worked bravely and unstintingly to expose it. This is what journalism is for’ - Observer ’ -” -

Hannah Barnes spent fifteen years at the BBC specialising in analytical and investigative journalism on both television and radio, most recently as Investigations Producer for BBC Newsnight. She led the programme’s coverage of the care available to young people experiencing gender-related distress, which helped precipitate an extensive NHS review and led directly to an inspection by the healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission, which branded GIDS - the NHS’s only youth gender clinic in England -‘Inadequate.’ The work was nominated for an array journalism awards, including the prestigious RTS Television Journalism Awards. Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children is a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for both the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize. Hannah is now an Associate Editor and Writer at the New Statesman.