John Berger | A Fortunate Man | Article in Slightly Foxed magazine

- Search for:
0
0

A Fortunate Man, [67] 24

Browse articles

A Fortunate Man | From the Slightly Foxed archives

‘John Berger has spent three months shadowing his remarkable friend the local GP night and day, to paint a portrait of his life . . .’ Please join us as we travel through the Slightly Foxed archives to the Forest of Dean in the 1960s, where we meet ‘an exceptional GP’ in Dr Sassall, the country doctor depicted in A Fortunate Man by John Berger. We hope you enjoy Rose Baring’s piece from SF Issue 67. And we also bring you more information about this year’s Slightly Foxed Readers’ Day, our one-day literary festival at the Art Workers’ Guild in London. The event will be held on Saturday 5 November, and we urge you to book your place now. It’s a high point in our calendar and we look forward to hearing our contributors speak about a wide range of bookish subjects and, of course, meeting readers old and new.

Giving Pain a Voice

Rose Baring on John Berger, A Fortunate Man

A lone doctor hares down a country lane in his Land Rover, his thumb jammed on the horn to warn the oncoming traffic that he’s not stopping. A woodman’s been pinned to the ground on a remote hillside by a falling tree and every second counts. Even at the start of A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor (1967), we are given an inkling of what makes Dr Sassall an exceptional GP. He had his thumb on the horn partly, he explains, so that the man under the tree might hear it and know he is on his way. Dr Sassall understands that even when the immediate danger is physical, his patients need him to keep their minds in mind. A good doctor treats the whole of his patient, not just his wounds.

Buy related issues of Slightly Foxed