Between 1987 and 2006 Raymond Tallis was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester and a consultant physician in Health Care of the Elderly in Salford.

Most of his 200 research publications are in the field of neurology of old age (epilepsy and stroke) and neurological rehabilitation. He has published original articles in Nature Medicine, Lancet and other leading journals. In 2000 he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

In 2002 he was awarded the Dhole Eddlestone Prize; in 2006 the Founders Medal of the British Geriatrics Society; and in 2007, the Lord Cohen Gold Medal for Research into Ageing.

Outside of his medical career he has published fiction, three volumes of poetry, and 18 books on the philosophy of mind, philosophical anthropology, literary theory, the nature of art, and cultural criticism. These offer a critique of current predominant intellectual trends and an alternative understanding of human consciousness, the nature of language and of what it is to be a human being. For this he has been awarded two honorary degrees: DLItt (Hon Causa) University of Hull,  1997; and LittD (Hon Causa) University of Manchester 2002.

In 2008 was appointed Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool.