Doctor Crippen's murder of his wife ranks among the most notorious crimes of the twentieth century. Richard Gordon skilfully recreates the chilling atmosphere of the murder - and how it shook respectable society to the core. Using the character as his case study, Gordon also reveals the conflicting suavity and savagery of the Edwardian age.
This harsh and gritty story of Florence Nightingale does little to perpetuate the myth of the gentle lady of the lamp. Instead, through the eyes of his impassioned narrator, Richard Gordon lays bare the truth of this complex and chilling character.
In this shrewd and witty novel, Victorian London for the poor is brought to life with compelling authority - hard, menial work; violence; prostitution; disease. A masterly evocation of the practice of medicine in 1888 - the year of Jack the Ripper - it is also a medical mystery. Why were his victims so silent and why so little blood?
July 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden. Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr. Crippen capable of murder, yet the doctor and his mistress have disappeared from London, and now a full-scale hunt for them has begun. Across the Channel in Antwerp, the S.S. Montrose has just set off on its two-week voyage to North America. Slipping in among the first-class passengers is a Mr. John Robinson, accompanied by his teenage son, Edmund. The pair may be hoping for a quiet, private voyage, but in the close confines of a luxury ocean liner, anonymity is rare. And with others aboard looking for romance, or violence, or escape from their past in Europe, it will take more than just luck for the Robinsons to survive the voyage unnoticed. An accomplished, intricately plotted novel, John Boyne's Crippen brilliantly reimagines the amazing escape attempt of one of history's most notorious killers and marks the outstanding American debut of one of Ireland's best young novelists.
Dr Grimsdyke was pleased to sit next to the luscious Lucy on a flight. Several hours in her company was bound to go well - despite Anemone waiting back home! As if juggling two women wasn't enough, the Jellybone sisters then enter the scene with a troupe of female contortionists. Grimsdyke falls headlong into a series of hilarious mishaps.
Richard Gordon's acceptance into St Swithan's came as no surprise. However, it was a shock to discover that, once there, he would have to work. Fortunately, life proved not to be all work and no play. This hilarious hospital comedy is for anyone who wonders what medical students get up to. Just don't read it on the way to the doctor's!
The Dean of St Swithan's Hospital Medical School is struggling to avoid hypocrisy as he writes the obituary for his fearsome sparring partner, Sir Lancelot Spratt. Yet far from being a funereal and moribund tale, Doctor on the Brain is a fast-moving, hilarious comedy where the jokes are liberally dispensed and the mishaps all too common.
The work-shy Dr Grimsdyke is still at St Swithan's. Nurses are hitching up their skirts in the name of fashion and the dean is almost certain he is to be knighted. And then a Rolls Royce pulls up with Sir Lancelot Spratt in it. Bored with retirement he has returned to invoke a clause in St Swithan's original charter and resume work.
In this hilarious romantic comedy, Richard Gordon develops a headache. It takes him a while to realise he is ill ? after all he is a doctor! Dr Pennyworth diagnoses jaundice and prescribes a spell in hospital. There, he falls in love with his very own Florence Nightingale. However he soon learns he has a rival and sets out to impress!
