The Last, the Least, the Lonely and the Lost: A memoir of medicine, meanderings and the marginalised
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Synopsis
This eclectic memoir spans nearly 70 years, including over 50 years of medical experiences, describing the intriguing journey of an individual doctor in a changing world. Combining scholarship with the authority of the moment, it provides the perspective of a general practitioner, an addiction medicine specialist and an academic. Ranging across medicine, travels, politics, history, with a touch of philosophy, the author interweaves reportage, humour, reflections, facts and whimsy. From working class roots in Glasgow, the tale includes student adventures and travels, the rigours of postgraduate training, and the richness and variety of a peripatetic medical life. It encompasses five continents, 12 general practices, 11 Universities and two marriages - a rollercoaster ride of joy, disappointments, serenity, turbulence, poignancy, adventures, mishaps, serendipity and discovery. Firmly rooted in reality, the narrative includes unique insights into the human condition: the challenges of inner-city general practice in Glasgow, Melbourne and Auckland, the rhythms of life and death in English rural practice, the dramas of medical care on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the tumult and rewards of addiction medicine in the Antipodes, the highs and lows of life in Universities and Royal Colleges. The narrative of the author's life is set within the context of the events and locations of the time. The reader is transported from post-World War II Glasgow and London, through the "swinging sixties" to Yugoslavia during the Prague Spring, America embroiled in the Vietnam War, South Africa at the height of apartheid and Thatcherite Britain, then to nuclear-free New Zealand, John Howard's xenophobic Australia, Myanmar's brief honeymoon with democracy, the dark history and quirkiness of Tasmania to today's cognitively dissonant world of disinformation and the COVID pandemic. The sweep of history is leavened with personal anecdotes and intimate descriptions of moving, dramatic and amusing clinical encounters. The journey ends with some thought-provoking reflections on the past and future of medical practice in our seismically changing world.
