This attractive and captivating book of some 112 pages chronicles the appearance of the beautiful Camel Estuary and its inhabitants over the course of a year. As is mentioned in her introduction, for some 4000 years, this has been a major trading coast, from the Bronze Ages times, with ships arriving from areas as distant as Ireland to the eastern Mediterranean. Yet, Padstow retains its Elizabethan charm whilst Polzeath is better known for its contemporary appeal to surfers. The appealing images capture vividly the variety of life in the area including foodie Padstow, with pictures of brown crab and silver mackerel ready for Rick Stein’s kitchen and the National Lobster Hatchery.
As one might expect, the most stunning images are those of the peaceful horizontal curves of the coastline, the sand banks and the rocks sloping down to the coastline and the sea. There are stunning images of field catching the sunlight at dawn, the diversity of the flora and the activity and pageantry of the Royal Cornwall show. There are depictions of ‘obby ‘oss day, sailing and surfing, vigorous watersports and the energetic exertions of the lifeboatmen of Padstow and the RNLI beach lifeguards.
There are short introductory sections of text to put the splendour of the photographs into context. That on the Age of the Saints, for instance, mentions St Petroc, his monastery and his travels to Brittany, Rome and Jerusalem. This introduces the double page spreads of the battering waves at Treyamon contrasting in the following images of the contemplative security of the quayside of the inner harbour at Padstow. These photographs of North Cornwall which inspired the poetry of Betjeman and Binyon are a collection to have on your shelf for browsing or as an incentive to tranquil recollection.
In the same week that I read this outstanding book on the development of pharmacology, the newspapers were full of issues on which this book has a bearing and something significant to say.
In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer. TB is such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain to be found in Egyptian mummies. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work well, and the staff they tested it upon seemed to respond well-it was called Heroin- and its addictive effects were at first missed. Just this week a group of paediatricians from a variety of hospitals, from Great Ormond Street to St James’s in Leeds, are concerned that in 2010 pharmaceutical companies are paying too little attention to funding research for babies and children. Why? Because it is less profitable than spending an equivalent amount of money on the development of medicines for adults. The history of the development of Aspirin appears on Bayer’s website but the marketing of Heroin – initially believed therapeutic, was abandoned by them in 1913-but not all firms- is not recorded.
An outstanding aspect of this stimulating and riveting read is its description of the heroic roles played by courageous men like Lind and Cochrane. The latter’s insistence upon weighing the evidence by careful statistical analysis in comparative groups was based on bitter experience of treating his fellow prisoners in the woeful conditions imposed by sadistic German guards in Salonika. Despite the shortage of available treatments the whole experience taught him the benefits of making his own careful comparative assessments. He had already fought fascism in the Spanish civil war and seen his friend Julian Bell die from a wound in a shattered thorax. After such experiences he committed his later days to introducing methodological rigour to medical research in relation to statistics and in the author’s telling phrase, ”having a more profound effect on human health than any newly discovered drug. One of the diseases on which their ideas most quickly had an effect was tuberculosis”. Because of its latency period after infection TB is still something of a problem for elderly patients, it was said on the radio this week. Its genes also mutate. However, the structured argument that Druin Burch pursues has contemporary relevance and careful historic research. His brief and concise pen portraits have the elegance of Aubrey’s “Brief Lives” to which he makes passing reference.
In a significant recent article in the national press Hadley Freeman, characterised the noughties as an age of fakery, in both science and medicine. She refers to Mike Specter’s new commentary on the MMR and autism furore. She mentions views pronounced by personalities from Ace Ventura, Tony Blair, Jim Carey and others on an issue which is likely to mislead vulnerable members of the public away from fact and experience. In “Taking the Medicine”, Druin referring to the fascinating figure of Boston’s nineteenth century physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes, refers to this propensity of patients to grasp at straws to find a cure and to pay for it. He states with an engaging touch of irony,”Like politicians who need to be seen to be doing-something-anything-about problems that are actually beyond their control, doctors are pushed into playing a part. The danger comes when they start to believe in their own illusory importance.”
In the next year or so, genetics advances will help to identify genetic sequences that drive patient’s cancers. Such work depends upon the earlier endeavours of figures like Paul Ehrlich who developed the effective use of chemical dyes, in haematology, to discover an effective description of the way in which living cells produce antibodies which led to a greater understanding of the immune system. The award of the first Nobel prize for medicine was, however blocked by an anti-Semitic chemist. Ehrlich went on, as Burch so clearly describes to test Salvarsan on animals with Saachiro Hata who had arrived from Tokyo in 1909. This led to the effective treatment of syphilis which, “held a position roughly equivalent to that of AIDS before the development of anti-retrovirals”. Ehrlich who was a kind and inspiring figure, Domagk his student, after a terrible time on the Western Front worked on the development of the first antibiotic which was needed to tackle puerpal fever- often lethal for women after childbirth- and meningitis until 1939. Dogmagk was to receive the Nobel prize but which under Hitler’s influence, he was made to refuse. He was still taken away by the Gestapo as his refusal was too polite.
Altogether this is an intelligent, wide ranging and stimulating read. The sort of book you hope that a sixth form biologist would find time to read and should be a supplement to the reading list in the first year at medical school-or” Knowledge Spas” they are named here in Cornwall. The author is an NHS doctor and his book is a thoroughly enjoyable, much easier than many medicines are to swallow!
This lively collection of essays and poetry was produced for Oxfam, introduced by Susan Hill,it also contains some most interesting drawings following the chapter by David Piper who was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge (1967-1973), and first director of the Ashmolean Museum (1973-1985). Other contributors, include Margaret Drabble, Michael Holroyd, P J Kavanagh and Ian McKellen. The latter with feeling writes about his experience of playing Aufidius in Corialanus under the expert and instructive direction of Tyrone Guthrie. This compilation is a splendid read. John Carey has written a charming chapter entitled Mr Perry, who was a Metropolitan Water Inspector on the reservoir at Chiswick. An atmospheric piece written about Carey’s childhood, it conveys how places and persons disappear under the ravages of time. There are several intriguing portraits of schoolmasters and academics and Susan Hill writes a piece about maternal recognition, about her daughter Jessica.Derek Mahon writes a restrained. elegant poem about the previously motorbiking character in An Old Lady now just sits and watches. This can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/IrelandGenWeb/2002-10/1035963794. Susan Hill has been much in the news since “The Woman in Black” was adapted for independent television in1989. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_Black) The book, written in 1983 is currently being filmed by Hammer and Alliance Films; apparently this was to be done in 3d, an aspiration now reduced to the usual format. Hill is married to Stanley Wells, the distinguished Shakespearean scholar. Her initial aspirations for the original thriller are recorded at http://www.susan-hill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=52 where she states, “I wrote the book in 6 weeks during one summer holiday, every morning while my 5 year old daughter was looked after by a 20 year old medical student, who gave her a wonderful time. It was typed up for me by the student’s sister, then doing a secretarial course but as she couldn`t read my writing, I dictated it onto a tape and she started taking it down. But after a short time, she could only do it if someone else was in the house – she found it just too frightening to work on alone. A good sign if ever there was one !”
Her latest novel is “A Kind Man” and has just had a generally sympathetic review by Sarah Curtis in the TLS. “Howard’s End is on the landing: A year of reading from home” which came out as a paperback last year is said to be “Conversational and brisk, intimate, insightful and authoritative”. More information on Susan Hill can be found at http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth192#criticalperspective
This is an excellent introduction to the plays that Shakespeare wrote in this very productive year. The fascinating account begins with a description of the theatre moving down from Shoreditch to the Southbank and its subsequent reconstruction. There is a useful summary of some of the leading actors among the Chamberlain’s Men.
There is a linkage between the major incidents of the times such as; Elizabeth’s Court, another possible invasion from another Armada and the troubles in Ireland including the attempts of Essex to deal with the situation. (It would be good to re-read Elisabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey to consider how his account differs.)
Shapiro is also excellent on the individual plays and ther connections with the period. How As You Like It is informed by the destruction of the forests like Arden-linked by name to the Ardennes. The effect of the enclosures and rural poverty are considered which of course comes up again in Coriolanus. The evolution of Hamlet is connected with the development of Brutus in Julius Caesar. Also there is much of interest about the development of the soliloquies under the influence of the Essay form from Montaigne but moderated by early English essayists. A compelling read and for further reviews there are:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/jun/04/classics.highereducation and http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/21451/part_2/in-the-shadow-of-the-queen.thtml
I am currently greatly enjoying reading this memoir;it is engaging, moving ,insightful and altogether a thoroughly good read. People might well want to know where they can read reviews of books such quality. I would strongly recommend The Bookbag
This lively collection of essays and poetry was produced for Oxfam, introduced by Susan Hill,it also contains some most interesting drawings following the chapter by David Piper who was director of the 
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