Received as a BookMooch. Thanks!

Archibald Joseph Cronin was born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire, in 1896, and was destined either for the Church or medicine: he chose medicine. Cronin trained in various hospitals in Scotland, Dublin and South Wales. He was appointed as a Medical Inspector of Mines and reported on coal-dust inhalation and lung disease before subsequently moving to London and private practice. This novel is therefore semi-autobiographical in nature as he draws on his professional career as a background.

In many respects this novel is a creature of its time. Cronin identified many of the issues in clinical practice which needed to be tackled , including better supervision of young doctors, postgraduate education programmes and the novel's popularity along with the cinematic portrayal helped towards the establishment of the NHS a decade or so later. However, some of the issues, in particular affordability, are still relevant today.

This isn't perhaps great literature. Manson despite his revolutionary zeal isn't always a particularly likeable character, he is often, selfish, arrogant and uncaring, but Cronin still manages to present an interesting and entertaining story. I am always interested in novels that feature social history and this book had the power to change public attitudes and behaviour towards health as well as professional thinking and for that reason alone deserves to be more widely read today.

Going out as a sort of Brucie Bonus. I hope that you haven't already read it. Enjoy!

Received in the post today from 4evagreen as a surprise RABCK. The parcel also contained "August is a Wicked Month", and Crowner's Quest. Thanks very much. This book looks just my kind of thing and I look forward to reading it asap.

REVIEW:-"A good story with lots of interesting stuff about the way things were done in the medical profession in the UK in the pre-NHS years.
I found some of the medical terms a bit frustrating as I mostly had to look them up to understand them, but I enjoyed the story of Andrew and Christine and the people they met and worked with along the way.
I was very sad about one particular occurrence towards the end of the book but thought it had a satisfactory final conclusion."
Reserved for my sister-in-law.

This book will be given to my sister-in-law when we meet for a catch-up.

To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, pass it to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. Of course if you can't bear to part with it at the moment then keep it, but please let me know that you have found it. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.

I already have books travelling in many countries around the world-a list can be found on my bookcrossing profile.

When re-releasing this book please be aware that airports are not a good place to leave books unless they have a specific book exchange shelf or area, due to security problems, so they may well just be disposed of. Also charity shops may well discard books that have been labelled in any way and they mostly chose only the books in the very best condition
to place on their shelves and discard the rest-so another bad release option.