Gillian Shirreffs made headlines in 2023 with her bestselling debut novel Brodie—a darkly funny, sharply observed story inspired by her love of Muriel Spark, and which raised over £16,834 for Beatson Cancer Charity. Now, the writer returns with Elephant, a strikingly honest and intimate exploration of illness, grief and the things we struggle to say out loud.
“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 centres on a writer facing a breast cancer diagnosis, but it’s not a traditional cancer memoir.
Told through messages, emails, tweets, and interior thoughts, it captures the chaos, loneliness, absurdity and clarity that come when life tilts suddenly and irrevocably. Part modern epistolary, part personal reckoning, it’s written with the same dry humour and emotional precision that made Brodie such a standout.
Shirreffs has been writing about illness for nearly two decades. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007, she began writing while on bedrest, when her body had shut down and the only thing she could move freely was her mind. What began as a coping mechanism grew into something more—an urgent, unsentimental body of work about what it means to live in a body that won’t behave.
A former HR director and English teacher, she holds a Doctor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Her thesis examined the relationship between object and illness—an idea that runs through all her writing, and especially through Elephant.
The book is already receiving powerful praise:
“‘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.” — Professor Victor Montori M.D.
“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
“Every so often, a manuscript arrives on my desk that not only has universality but also a deep insight into human frailty and our ability to overcome. Gillian points at the elephant in the room and says, take a seat.” — Stephen Cameron, Owner of Into Creative Publishing.
Elephant is available in June and available now to pre-order from intocreative.co.uk/shop/ and Waterstones.