Blasts from the Past: A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland (2022)

This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could.

Polly Morland’s book was all over social media when it was first published, and deservedly so. It’s a sequel, if you like, to John Berger’s A Fortunate Man, published in 1967, which followed his friend, a country GP he called ‘Dr Sassall’, over three months. Berger could hardly have thought that the book would make such an impression, becoming recommended reading for medical students.

Morland’s eloquent book follows the woman who became a partner in what was Sassall’s practice many years later, following her over a period which includes the pandemic. She’s very much part of the community although careful to place herself a little outside it, empathetic and attuned to signals sent out by patients who might have come in for one thing but are much more worried about something else. She’s well-liked and respected, the kind of doctor we’d all like to have, caring deeply for her patients some of whom she’s known since birth. It’s a fascinating record and a timely commentary on the state of our health service struggling under a burden of past cuts to cope with demands it was hardly designed to cater for.

This book was a very personal read for me. Quite some time before Morland’s book was published, I’d worked out from a blogger’s review of Berger’s book that ‘Dr Sassall’ had been my family doctor when I was a teenager. As compassionate and empathetic as Morland’s GP, I’m sure he would have been pleased by her treatment of her patients.

What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?

You can find more posts like this here.