Some Lives!: A Gp's East End

by David Widgery

In July 1991, the London Docklands Development Corporation celebrated ten years of "urban renewal" in London's East End. But what have been the human consequences for the people who live there? Dr David Widgery has lived and worked as a doctor in East London for the last 20 years and now practices in the shadow of Canary Wharf. This is an account of the suffering, deprivation and neglect endured by ordinary East Enders who were passed over in both the LDDC and the 1980s boom. He graphically shows the medical and personal consequences of prolonged unemployment, homelessness and poverty. From labour ward to death bed, in sickness even more than health, life's possibilities are still delineated by social class. Yet, despite the deprivation, East Enders, old and new, retain the Cockney virtues of solidarity, warmth and humour. Dr Widgery argues that a GP is as much a witness as an executant - a privileged observer of pain endured, private sadness and jubilant recovery. This book blends scientific and medical analysis with sketches from his medical notebooks. The author also wrote "The Left in Britain 1956-68", "Health in Danger", "Beating Time", "The National Health" and "Preserving Disorder".

Genres: Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 1992

Reviews

[Alexandra Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone must read this, especially those delusional about privatisation... thinking it is all well and good. Nothing should come as a surprise if you've lived through this period/ in this area or if you've had your eyes open this whole time and have a human heart. If only we could undo the Thatcher years....

[Darla Ebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories from an inside perspective, a Dr. in the East End. Some of the pages, I admit, were so difficult to read I had to skip them. Nevertheless it is a laudatory effort which is appreciated by people concerned for the impoverished people in disadvantaged areas of London and those within its proximity.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the author's supposedly Marxist credentials, far too much of this reads like a liberal anthropologist's journey into an exotic foreign land.

The strongest section is where he drops the reportage of human misery and instead focuses on the history of the area, especially the docks. However, that only constitutes about 15 percent of the book.