There are three reasons that, for doctors, this is a fascinating book. It provides graphic descriptions of 19th century military medicine, it charts the ease of descent into drug addiction when drugs were readily available, and it demonstrates the power of trusting human relationships even in the most dire of circumstances.
John is a doctor in Victorian London who, in 1884 volunteers to join General Wolseley's expedition to the Sudan to rescue General Gordon. Mary, John's wife, left behind in London, is bored and vulnerable. She has access to his dispensary and gradually succumbs to laudanum addiction. When they meet again, they have both had a brush with death, and discovered new strengths.
The drastic effect of Gordon's unbending belief in heroism, Empire, and Englishness is set against a tender evocation of his relationship with Tom, a servant waif. A recent BMJ editorial described ‘the unholy mess’ created by Lansley's bill: ‘… the resulting upheaval has been unnecessary, poorly conceived, badly communicated …’.1 Slovo's novel highlights political ineptitude in a different age and graphically describes the effects of another poorly conceived and badly communicated campaign. The comparison may be tenuous but it is fascinating.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2012