Richard Gordon’s acceptance into St Swithan’s medical school came as no surprise to anyone, least of all him – after all, he had been to public school, played first XV rugby, and his father was, let’s face it, ‘a St Swithan’s man’. Surely he was set for life. It was rather a shock then to discove...
Sir Lancelot Spratt, respected and much feared senior consultant at St Swithan’s has finally taken the plunge and retired to enjoy the quiet life. No longer able to fill his days terrorising staff and patients alike, he turns instead to a new passion – a spot of trout fishing. However his solace ...
‘Not another! For God’s sake, not another.’ ‘Lionel,’ said his wife. ‘That’s two entire teams, a referee, and a pair of linesmen.’ ‘Lionel!’ The dean raised his head from the pillow. ‘Dear me. I must have been having another of my dreams.’ ‘You were counting out loud.’ ‘Yes, I remember now. I was...
At the bottom I bumped absently into someone coming through the door. ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled. A violent blow on the back sent me staggering. ‘Richard, you old bastard.’ ‘Grimsdyke!’ We shook hands delightedly. Although we were close companions in medical school, I hadn’t seen him since the afternoon ...
The ward itself had changed vastly since his first entry to the old Virtue Ward in the now demolished building as its consultant surgeon. In those orderly days, it contained two straight well-disciplined lines of patients, drilled by the ward sister, it seemed to Sir Lancelot, to breathe in uniso...
I was fascinated by the heady, chancy, expense-account career of young Dr Lonelyhearts, playing his hand of credit cards, flaunting his mastery of airline timetables, enjoying through the (equally tax-deductible) liberality of drug companies the life of itinerant extravagance once led by the sons...
‘Darling!’ Miles came to life. ‘My beloved! My heart’s easel My angel pie! Have you the car? Take me back home instantly.’ ‘That’s exactly why I came down,’ Connie added calmly. ‘Though I didn’t expect to find myself so heavily outnumbered.’ Connie’s arrival, naturally, raised even more interest ...
‘Don’t you indeed?’ I replied, and produced a couple of identical gold cigarette cases from my pockets. ‘The only snag is knowing what to do with the things, my life never being organized to meet such a situation. I think I’ll reserve one for the hock shop, and have the other engraved “With Grati...
sighed Grimsdyke reflectively. “A creature I once saw described in an American gynaecology book as ‘A constipated biped with pain in the back’.” “Well, there’s one thing,” I told him firmly. “It’s going to be many a long day before I get involved with another one.” “I only wish I could agree with...
Terry sat gloomily looking into his tea. His thoughts had become so confused that he was not entirely certain what they were, or if cerebration was proceeding at all. He decided like a good doctor heartlessly to extract the unpleasant truth from the inessentials. He saw first of all that he had b...
Basil and I stood staring at each other like a couple of lobsters caught in the same pot. ‘What the devil are you doing here?’ I demanded. ‘Dressed up like that?’ ‘Exactly the same, dear chappie,’ he replied very affably, ‘might I ask you.’ ‘But I’m the ship’s doctor!’ ‘And I’m the ship’s steward...