One of the nice things about going to a David Hockney exhibition is that almost everyone comes out smiling. This was certainly true at the recent Tate Britain retrospective David Hockney: 60 years work which brought together, in a compact show in only 12 rooms, key pictures from the 1960s to the present. Rather like a visit to the Frick Collection in New York, a Hockney exhibition contains almost nothing ugly, visceral or alarming, although it raises plenty of questions. I am hopeful that a visit to the Life &Times section of the BJGP also puts a smile on some of our readers’ faces, and makes you ask some questions. I trust that you will not think it too fanciful if I draw some parallels between Hockney’s career and the development of the Journal, and of general practice more broadly.
Hockney is 80 this year, despite being a dedicated smoker, and began his …