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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

‘This is what journalism is for’ – Observer

Time to Think goes behind the headlines to reveal the truth about the NHS’s flagship gender service for children.

The Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) was set up initially to provide talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity.

But in the last decade GIDS referred around two thousand children, some as young as nine years old, for medication to block their puberty. In the same period, the number of referrals exploded and the profile of the patients changed: from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls, who were often contending with other difficulties. Was there enough clinical evidence to justify such profound medical interventions?

This urgent, scrupulous and dramatic book explains how GIDS has been the site of a serious medical scandal, in which ideological concerns took priority over clinical practice. It is a disturbing and gripping parable for our times.

Publisher Review

'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 'The question Barnes puts at the centre of this book is "Are we hurting children?" What follows is an extraordinarily sensitive and important piece of work that exposes the huge price some of our young have had to pay for a system that was simply not rigorous enough in asking that question. Time to Think - which explores the rapid rise and phenomenal growth of the GIDS clinic at the Tavistock - is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how safeguarding concerns got lost, despite the best intentions of practically all those involved. 'The testimonies in the book are raw, honest and moving. More than that they are a vital piece of evidence that shows - without prejudice - where things went right, where things went wrong and, remarkably, the thousands of cases of young people where we still don't know' Emily Maitlis