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Fool or Physician: The Memoirs of a Sceptical Doctor
Most of the antipodean beachcombers were heavy drinkers. It was a way of life with them. An Australian trader consulted me one day because of a serious drink problem he had.
‘I only had ten cans yesterday, doc,’ he said. ‘And today I haven’t had any. I just don’t feel like it. Today’s the first day in ten years I haven’t had a drink.’
I looked at him. He was yellow; he had hepatitis.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘you’ve got hepatitis. That’s why you don’t want to drink. What’s more, you mustn’t drink for at least three months.’
‘Oh!’ he said.
‘And I see from looking at your hospital records that sometimes you vomit blood in the morning.’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘It’s not a terribly good sign, you know.’
‘Oh, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I thought everyone did it.’
He returned three months later. To my surprise he had not touched a drop.
‘Hey doc!’ he said. ‘I feel terrific, I haven’t felt this good in years. Why’s that then?’
‘Why do you think?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know. You’re the doc, you should know.’
‘Well, for the first time in ten years you haven’t got a hangover.’
‘Oh.’
A look of deep cogitation passed over his face like the shadow of a cloud over a field on a summer’s day.
‘Does that mean I can go back on the beer?’
Some men become doctors out of a noble desire to save lives, or because they seek money and prestige; Anthony Daniels did so because he was middle class, because he had to do something and because his father – not a man to be lightly gainsaid – pushed him into it.
But this inauspicious beginning led to a great career – if not as a doctor (though he became a respected consultant psychiatrist), then as a doctor-writer.
Both in his own name, and under his better-known nom de plume of Theodore Dalrymple, Daniels is a prolific author whose work has spanned 30 years and much of the globe.
His formidable energy is equalled in his prose by a clarity and elegance which few can match, and it is this, as well as his unusual experience, originality of insight and unconventional views (by modern standards), which have won him worldwide acclaim.
But although he is read – as Theodore Dalrymple – in almost every country on earth, relatively little is known about him.
Fool or Physician, which was his second book and remains his most personal, offers his followers a small insight into his past.
It details his reluctant entry into medical school (‘I specialised in doing and knowing the least necessary to pass the examinations’), his earliest ventures in medicine in a small midlands town and his subsequent work overseas when, bored almost to tears by life in the NHS, he travels first to the then-Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa (as a ‘well-meaning liberal’ his ‘problem was to discover where in the world pure evil still confronted pure good, where I could demonstrate that I was on the side of the angels, but at the same time live comfortably and register with the General Medical Council’), and later to the Gilbert Islands, a pacific paradise brimming with drunken expatriates, eccentrics and lunatics.
‘I only had ten cans yesterday, doc,’ he said. ‘And today I haven’t had any. I just don’t feel like it. Today’s the first day in ten years I haven’t had a drink.’
I looked at him. He was yellow; he had hepatitis.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘you’ve got hepatitis. That’s why you don’t want to drink. What’s more, you mustn’t drink for at least three months.’
‘Oh!’ he said.
‘And I see from looking at your hospital records that sometimes you vomit blood in the morning.’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘It’s not a terribly good sign, you know.’
‘Oh, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I thought everyone did it.’
He returned three months later. To my surprise he had not touched a drop.
‘Hey doc!’ he said. ‘I feel terrific, I haven’t felt this good in years. Why’s that then?’
‘Why do you think?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know. You’re the doc, you should know.’
‘Well, for the first time in ten years you haven’t got a hangover.’
‘Oh.’
A look of deep cogitation passed over his face like the shadow of a cloud over a field on a summer’s day.
‘Does that mean I can go back on the beer?’
Some men become doctors out of a noble desire to save lives, or because they seek money and prestige; Anthony Daniels did so because he was middle class, because he had to do something and because his father – not a man to be lightly gainsaid – pushed him into it.
But this inauspicious beginning led to a great career – if not as a doctor (though he became a respected consultant psychiatrist), then as a doctor-writer.
Both in his own name, and under his better-known nom de plume of Theodore Dalrymple, Daniels is a prolific author whose work has spanned 30 years and much of the globe.
His formidable energy is equalled in his prose by a clarity and elegance which few can match, and it is this, as well as his unusual experience, originality of insight and unconventional views (by modern standards), which have won him worldwide acclaim.
But although he is read – as Theodore Dalrymple – in almost every country on earth, relatively little is known about him.
Fool or Physician, which was his second book and remains his most personal, offers his followers a small insight into his past.
It details his reluctant entry into medical school (‘I specialised in doing and knowing the least necessary to pass the examinations’), his earliest ventures in medicine in a small midlands town and his subsequent work overseas when, bored almost to tears by life in the NHS, he travels first to the then-Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa (as a ‘well-meaning liberal’ his ‘problem was to discover where in the world pure evil still confronted pure good, where I could demonstrate that I was on the side of the angels, but at the same time live comfortably and register with the General Medical Council’), and later to the Gilbert Islands, a pacific paradise brimming with drunken expatriates, eccentrics and lunatics.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1987
16 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Theodore Dalrymple
98 books623 followersAnthony Malcolm Daniels, who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in the east end of London. Before his retirement in 2005, he worked in City Hospital, Birmingham and Winson Green Prison in inner-city Birmingham, England.
Daniels is a contributing editor to City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, where he is the Dietrich Weismann Fellow. In addition to City Journal, his work has appeared in The British Medical Journal, The Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Salisbury Review, National Review, and Axess magasin.
In 2011, Dalrymple received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think tank Libera!.
Daniels is a contributing editor to City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, where he is the Dietrich Weismann Fellow. In addition to City Journal, his work has appeared in The British Medical Journal, The Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, The Salisbury Review, National Review, and Axess magasin.
In 2011, Dalrymple received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think tank Libera!.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 24, 2017
This was my favorite book of his that I've read to date. It's a journey through his encounters and a few of the places he's been, which sounds like a boring read and all but on the contrary: His command over the English language paints pictures so vivid, characters so alive, it puts you right there with him. I always enjoy his work but this one was particularly riveting.
May 30, 2022
I wonder if a young Dr was more cocksure about the world ,good and evil and so forth, than the older Dalrymple I've come to know and love. Seems as though he traveled the whole of South Africa and Rhodesia and hardly met and decent white man.
March 14, 2024
This man is quite the character.
January 31, 2016
Memoirs from early on in the career of an English doctor who just fell into his profession and then stumbled on into fields more or less by accident and sometimes because of the field of least resistance.
Certainly a varied career and interesting places he ended up in from slums in England through the Africa to the South Pacific.
Blackly humorous and rather grim social commentary.
Certainly a varied career and interesting places he ended up in from slums in England through the Africa to the South Pacific.
Blackly humorous and rather grim social commentary.
July 14, 2013
A really good inspiring book that makes me want to work hard, graduate and work as a doctor all over the world. It shows the politics of working as a doctor in different countries and also the boundries working in different cultures. A very witty book.
October 26, 2018
Fun Read About the Real World
I am a sucker for a good memoir, especially one that doubles as a travelogue. Fascinating stories from London to South Africa to the South Seas amid the drudgery of bureaucracy in the life of a doctor in the service of the National Health.
I am a sucker for a good memoir, especially one that doubles as a travelogue. Fascinating stories from London to South Africa to the South Seas amid the drudgery of bureaucracy in the life of a doctor in the service of the National Health.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews