![Alice in Wonderland illustration by John Tenniel [Public Domain]](https://www.torontomedicalhistoricalclub.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Alice-940x590.jpg)
Congratulations to club member Charles Hayter who has recently published two wonderful essays in the Globe and Mail.
In his Opinion piece of June 18, 2026, “After my father’s death, I learned we had more in common than I’d thought,” he recalls his childhood delight in reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the shame he felt at his father’s disapproval of such interests. As a sensitive imaginative boy, Charles struggled to hide his sexual feelings and his love of theatre, books and dressing up in order to preserve his relationship with his stern father. It was only after his father’s death that Charles discovered a hidden folder of papers that revealed a side of his father that he had not known before. This essay was longlisted for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
More recently on October 22, 2026, Charles published a First Person piece, “It was time I got serious about clowning around”, that is a lively and touching reflection on the childlike joy he discovered in taking a course on clowning in a theatre program for older adults. He learns that it is in allowing himself to become vulnerable that he can show his truth and enjoy the freedom of expression that he had yearned for since he saw a his first circus in postwar England as a young boy.
