Chrissie Giles

Chrissie Giles studied biochemistry at the University of Leeds in England. Concluding that clumsiness and practical science do not mix, she completed a master’s degree in science communication in 2003 and has been working as a writer and editor ever since. Her editorial career began in a medical communications agency and, via a brief stint in the heady world of motor caravan journalism, she now writes and edits stories on biology and medicine for UK charitable trust Wellcome, and is editor of Wellcome’s longform online magazine, Mosaic. For Mosaic, she has written “Breaking bad news,” which looks at the practical, emotional and professional challenges doctors face when telling patients that they are seriously ill. In “How we became the heaviest drinkers in a century,” Chrissie trawls her teenage diaries and speaks to alcohol experts to try and understand why she was part of the UK generation that reached “Peak Booze.”