A moving, evocative account of a rural GP in a remote rural location.
Polly Morland is a writer and documentary maker. She worked for fifteen years in television, producing and directing documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery. She is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow in the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University. She is the author of several books, including The Society of Timid Souls: Or, How to Be Brave, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and was a Sunday Times Book of the Year, and A Fortunate Woman.
Morland writes about nature and the changing landscape with such
lyrical precision that her prose sometimes seems close to poetry .
. . There has been no shortage in recent years of books about
healthcare . . . With this gem, Morland has done something similar
for general practice. Let’s just hope the policymakers listen.
*Sunday Times*
The doctor's kindly, holistic approach - she makes time to
investigate her patients' social as well as physical needs - seems
to evoke a lost world . . . Morland's book contains a profound
message for the future at a critical moment for general practice
and us all.
*TLS*
This book deepens our understanding of the life and thoughts of a
modern doctor, and the modern NHS, and it expands movingly to
chronicle a community and a landscape – “the valley” itself is a
defining feature of people’s lives.
*New Statesman*
Polly Morland and Richard Baker have more than done justice to the
original John Berger book - and produced a work that stimulates the
eye and mind in equal measure.
**
I was consoled and compelled by this book’s steady gaze on healing
and caring. The writing is beautiful.
**
Superb - beautiful, enthralling, careful, tender, a humanitarian
act in itself, deeply moral, moving, lucid and loving.
**
All human life is here in this evocative portrayal of the
challenges and joys of rural family doctoring in modern times.
Enthralling and uplifting.
**
A Fortunate Woman is the best book I’ve read about general practice
for a long time. Astonishingly perceptive, it shows how a committed
GP can keep human values alive in an increasingly impersonal NHS –
and why we urgently need more like her.
*Professor Roger Neighbour OBE.
*
A vibrant and authentic portrait of the rural family doctor in
these difficult contemporary times.
**
One of the best books about medicine that I have read. The
patients' stories are vivid, moving, often unforgettable. Polly
Morland has written with incredible sensitivity, appreciation and
descriptive ability about the valley and the people who live
there
**
A Fortunate Woman is grounded in a legacy of care and compassion
for the community served, shared though a compelling narrative
based on patient stories. I loved it.
**
I thought it was stunning in style and content and I hope it
encourages all readers to reflect on what I agree is your key
message – the importance of relationship-base care and the fact
that it is under threat.
**
Beautifully and tenderly written, [A Fortunate Woman] also serves
as a topical reminder of what is possible with continuity of
care.
*Bookseller*
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