What is it like to have a colostomy, and through it, consciously and manually to manage the – normally automatic – process of excretion? Author William Fiennes had a colostomy for two years in his early twenties, a by-product of Crohn’s disease. He has now described his experience in colourful and olfactory detail the process of caring for his stoma. (It has been published in a book of essays, and in the Guardian, but it was originally a talk for Radio 3’s The Essay.)

Fiennes tells of his fascination with variations in the live organ that is his … Read more...