Picador pre-empts a neurologist's exploration of how the brain can heal itself

Picador has pre-empted Dr Orlando Swayne’s How to Use a Fork, a neurologist’s exploration of "how the broken brain is able to fix itself".

Publishing director Andrea Henry acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Chris Wellbelove at Aitken Alexander, for publication in hardback in summer 2026. Jessica Yao at Norton will publish simultaneously in the US.

"With the ongoing evolution of our understanding of neuroplasticity — the brain’s capacity to remould its connections in response to experience or change — Swayne’s work as a neurologist continues to reveal new capabilities that allow functions we thought to be lost to be restored," the synopsis says. "In How to Use a Fork, the beautiful science of brain plasticity meets remarkable human stories of survival and recovery — the man who thought the mitten on his hand was a fish, the lawyer whose language returned as interminable legalese, the man who found his way back to human interaction through music."

Henry said: "Orlando, an expert in his field, has a gift for bringing complex science to life. By fusing stories that offer a remarkable perspective on human determination in the face of catastrophe and cutting-edge research into neuroplasticity, he has completely won us over."

The author is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), where he leads the Neurorehabilitation Unit, and is an honorary associate professor at the UCL Institute of Neurology. He added: "This book describes the path along which the brain has led me over the last three decades: from a grim landscape of irreparable damage, through the strange and often beautiful science of brain reorganisation, to a place where remarkable recovery may be achieved."