“Have you still got those yellow pills I gave you?”
“Your father’s heart is weak. You must never tell him this; it would weaken his heart.”
“The best prescription I can offer him is someone who believes he’s going to get better.”
I've taken to putting a library hold on any book I see or hear strongly recommended, so anticipatory thanks for Malice Aforethought. For others who might be temporarily flummoxed, as I was, it was written by Cox under the pen name Francis Iles, so that's where you'll find it.
Plus they're often making house calls! Tangential: Have you read Stephen Potter's "Upmanship" books? The section on "Doctorship" (in "One-Upmanship") is one of my favorite things in the book:
"...in the bedroom, the brisk type of MD-man is able to suggest by his manner not only that Patient's room is surprisingly disordered, but that he, the Doctor, goes in for a more up-to-date type of pajamas:
LAYMAN: Thank you, Doctor. I was coming home rather late last night from the House of Commons...
MD-MAN: Thank you...now if you'll just let me put these...hair brushes and things off the bed for you...
LAYMAN: I was coming home rather late. Army Act, really --
MD-MAN: Now just undo the top button of your shirt or whatever it is you're wearing..."
For what it's worth, a modern-day doctor advised me to move to Canada for the weather and primarily eat stew. She may have a point, but I lack the means (or appropriate external narrative intervention) to follow her advice.
Brilliant take on the temporal absurdity of fictional doctors. The bit about prescribing marriage as medical advice captures something genuinly weird about how midcentury lit treated expertise. Back then, being an MD basically meant having authoritative opinons on everything from romance to grief, kinda like how we treat tech founders now but with a black bag instead of a pitch deck.
Beautiful!! Thank you! Now I ought to get back in bed, and will for sure take some of those little pills.
I've taken to putting a library hold on any book I see or hear strongly recommended, so anticipatory thanks for Malice Aforethought. For others who might be temporarily flummoxed, as I was, it was written by Cox under the pen name Francis Iles, so that's where you'll find it.
Plus they're often making house calls! Tangential: Have you read Stephen Potter's "Upmanship" books? The section on "Doctorship" (in "One-Upmanship") is one of my favorite things in the book:
"...in the bedroom, the brisk type of MD-man is able to suggest by his manner not only that Patient's room is surprisingly disordered, but that he, the Doctor, goes in for a more up-to-date type of pajamas:
LAYMAN: Thank you, Doctor. I was coming home rather late last night from the House of Commons...
MD-MAN: Thank you...now if you'll just let me put these...hair brushes and things off the bed for you...
LAYMAN: I was coming home rather late. Army Act, really --
MD-MAN: Now just undo the top button of your shirt or whatever it is you're wearing..."
For what it's worth, a modern-day doctor advised me to move to Canada for the weather and primarily eat stew. She may have a point, but I lack the means (or appropriate external narrative intervention) to follow her advice.
Brilliant take on the temporal absurdity of fictional doctors. The bit about prescribing marriage as medical advice captures something genuinly weird about how midcentury lit treated expertise. Back then, being an MD basically meant having authoritative opinons on everything from romance to grief, kinda like how we treat tech founders now but with a black bag instead of a pitch deck.
I was guffawing from this!!