Secrets from the Black Bag - Softcover

Butler, Susan Woldenber

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0850843022 ISBN 13: 9780850843026

Publisher: Royal College of General Pract, 2005

Synopsis

From Pakistan to Tanganyika, from Scotland to Tasmania, doctors all over the world, carrying their little black bags, enter the private world of patients as they struggle with the business of dying and living. This novel - a fictionalised account of the lives of remote and single-handed general practitioners (family doctors) - brilliantly captures the essence of family medicine, and so much more. The secrets from the black bag presented in these stories have been selected and developed from a number of interviews with home - visiting general practitioners. Presented as a series of interconnecting chapters in 11 voices, meet the doctors as they speak to us of their delights, their fears, their failings and successes. The writing is clear and engaging, at times funny, at times poignant. The stories of doctors traversing the dark night to their patients, bag in hand, covers more than physical distance. The stories deal with a myriad of subjects that concern modern medical practitioners and, consequently, their patients. This book is intended for all doctors in training, family doctors, especially those with an interest in literature and medicine, and anyone wishing to meet the doctors as they speak to us of their delights, their fears, their failings and successes.

About this title

About the Author:

About the author Susan Woldenberg Butler was born in Louisiana, USA and lives in rural Tasmania with her husband, Colin, two sheep and numerous passing wild birds. Secrets from the Black Bag is her first published work of long fiction, although she's published non-fiction and short stories, including some which have appeared in the British Journal of General Practitioners. She has also written a detective novel set in Tasmania and has just finished a cookbook. Together with her husband, she has co-founded a non-profit organisation, the Benevolent Organisation for Development, Health & Insight (BODHI) in 1989 (www.bodhi.net.au), to which she devotes much time and energy.

Review:

Comments from readers on Secrets from the Black Bag At their best, brilliant and elegant ... Dr Alec Logan, Editor, British Journal of General Practice, UK They're the first thing I read when I open Australian Doctor. Dr David Kardachi, GP, Australia Your stories are delightful. Susan Abrahms, Assc Ed, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, USA The stories are compelling and engaging ... most intriguing, especially the exposure to another side of medicine, something that both western doctors as well as patients need to understand in order to appreciate our systems, and more importantly, to improve and change its destructive constraints and unrealistic demands. Dr Randy Birkin, gynaecologist, Houston, USA

About this edition

• Publisher: Royal College of General Pract
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0850843022
• ISBN 13: 9780850843026
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 206