A high-achiever and natural communicator
This is either going to be a ‘first’ for the Rust … or a complete waste of time. I say that with a degree of confidence because, as a ‘Gold Star’ winning technophobe, I have not the faintest idea as to whether what I am about to attempt will work …
Let me introduce my project:
On the afternoon of Tuesday 2nd May this week it so happens that I was scheduled to drive around the western edge of the M25 to the M40, and thence towards Oxford, on my way to see my daughter for an early evening meal.
Whilst doing so, for want of anything better to do, I decided to tune my in-car radio to Radio Five Live and joined its Afternoon Edition programme (which I believe broadcasts weekdays between 1.00pm and 4.00-pm) shortly before its two presenters Nihal Arthanayake and Sarah Brett began interviewing a neurosurgeon named Henry Marsh, described as one of Britain’s foremost in this area of expertise.
Hitherto I had known nothing – nor indeed heard of – Mr Marsh.
Googling since, however, I have been able to discover that he is 67 years of age. He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Westminster and then read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at University College Oxford – achieving a 1st class degree – before then graduating with honours in Medicine from the Royal Free Medical School.
[It says here on Wikipedia that] he was senior consultant surgeon at the Atkinson Morley Wing at St Georges Hospital, south London, until 2015 – specialising in operating on the brain under local anaesthetic – and was the subject of the major BBC documentary series Your Life In Their Hands (2004) which won the Royal Televison Society Gold Medal.
As I understand it, Marsh then quit the NHS in disgust at the way he and other doctors and surgeons were being treated and continues to spent a lot of his time abroad working in Nepal and the Ukraine.
Apparently his autobiography Doing No Harm: Stories of Life, Death And Brain Surgery (Orion, 2014) was widely well-received.
The reason for him being interviewed on the programme in question was that he has just published a second book entitled Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery.
As indicated above, I previously knew nothing about Mr Marsh. I do not know whether, amongst his peers, he is regarded as a thoroughly sound good egg or a just a publicity-seeking egotist.
However, what I can say from a purely perosnal point of view is that his interview with Arthanayake and Brett was a spendid way of spending forty-five minutes or so driving on Britain’s motorways. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard such a relaxed, engaging and impressive conversationalist holding forth.
Hence this attempt to provide a link to a BBC podcast thingy whereby interested Rust readers might – and I repeat might – also be able to share some of the pleasure I enjoyed last Tuesday – HENRY MARSH ON RADIO FIVE LIVE’S AFTERNOON EDITION 2nd MAY 2017
[Please note that you may have to click on the ‘Play’ button at the top of the linked page to hear what I believe in an ‘edited’ version of his interview ...]
