How does one choose narrative strategy? One biographer’s experience

The Extraordinary Life of Dr Michael J. Cousins, 2 I asked a variation on the same question: how does one select a biography's narrative strategy when there are so many choices?On 31 October 1982, as I cycled along a gravel road overlooking Magnetic Island in North Queensland, I revelled in the salty fragrance of the sea air and the fiery touch of the tropical breeze on my face.Suddenly, from the corner of my right eye, I glimpsed an arm thrusting towards me.My next memory was a bright light.It was a doctor at Townsville General Hospital peering into my eyes with a torch.'How do you feel?' he asked.'Where am I?' 'In hospital', he said.'Some thugs in a passing car pushed you off your bicycle.You landed on your head and rolled along the road, pivoting on your neck.'That day, my twenty-fourth birthday, heralded the onset of daily migraine attacks.It was also my entrée to the medical merry-go-round.After two decades of ricocheting from neurologist to neurologist and with escalating migraine attacks, my general practitioner referred me to the pain medicine specialist Dr Michael J. Cousins at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.He greeted me in the pain clinic's crowded waiting room.'Hello Gabriella, I'm Dr Michael Cousins', he said.