TY - JOUR T1 - A bold claim JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 988 LP - 988 VL - 56 IS - 533 AU - James Willis Y1 - 2006/12/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/533/988.abstract N2 - The grand old man of GP literature, Michael O'Donnell, has just published a compilation of the articles that my generation used to read before we read anything else, and sometimes instead of reading anything else. Originally in World Medicine, they are of course hilarious, but they are also moving and their insights are as penetrating and relevant as ever. But more than that, the book Dr Donovan's Bequest1 is an important record of the extraordinary background from which British general practice so recently emerged, blinking, into the sunlight of our brave, new age.Modern readers may think the stories are wildly exaggerated, but they are not. For example GPs in those days really were treated as a sub-species by hospital specialists. The word generalist had yet to be coined, and the idea that trying to practice in an inclusive rather … ER -