Julian Tudor Hart: an appreciation

Visiting Julian and Mary Hart at Glyncorrwg in South Wales in the 70s and 80s, as hundreds did, and experiencing their rich mixture of hospitality, fine food, and brilliant conversation, was to live life temporarily on a higher plane.

As a visiting medical student in 1975 on my first night out, listening to men in a pub singing ‘Delilah’, ‘Myfanwy’, and Verdi’s ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’, I got an early taste of the strength in depth of a mining community.

Dr ‘Art (without an H) lived in such a community with his patients: ‘From many direct and indirect contacts, in schools, shops and gossip, I have come to understand how ignorant I would be if I knew them only as a doctor seeing them when they were ill.’(1973)

Julian hated when bad things happened to his patients, especially when …