Summary:
A fascinating guide to medical London, Walking London’s Medical History contains seven guided walks around London that focus on the rich medical history surrounding each area. Each walk is centred around a medical theme. History and past events are bought to life as sex, murder and intrigue mingle with medical events and figures in by-gone times. This is London at its most graphic, not only are readers taken on a journey into the past but they are given an extended and detailed tour around the area. Linking together past and contemporary events in healthcare, the reader is able to familiarise themselves with the developments of medicine through the ages.
Packed full of curious and surprising facts about medicine and beautifully illustrated with maps, photographs and images, and with a foreword written by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd, this is the perfect guide book for anyone with a passion for urban walks, the history of London and, of course, medicine.
'Walks you'll actually want to go on.'
Tom Lamont, Editor, Time Out: London for Londoners
'Anyone interested in [London's] unwholesome and insalubrious past will wish to read this book.'
Peter Ackroyd, bestselling author of London: The Biography
Winner of first prize in the basis of medicine category, BMA Medical Book Competition, 2007.
Walking London's Medical History is an award winning book that reveals a little known aspect of the capital's past in a manner of both informative and fun, accessible whether you have a medical background or not
Packed full of curious and surprising facts about medicine and beautifully illustrated with maps, photographs and images
The perfect guide book for anyone with a passion for urban walks, the history of London and, of course, medicine
Nick Black is one of the leading academics in the UK on health services, having published several books and over 200 articles in medical journals
Foreword written by Peter Ackroyd, bestselling author of London: The Biography
Reviews:
An anatomy upon the historical body of London.
Peter Ackroyd
What a brilliant book! Nick Black's knowledge is encyclopaedic. Fascinating. I'm enjoying both the book and the walks!
Customer Review from Karol Sikora, Professor of Cancer Medicine, Imperial College
Black tweaks aside the curtains, scratches away the paintwork, and lifts the roofs to reveal the intriguing secrets of London’s hidden medical past. With marvellous insights ... at every twist and turn, navigated with the help of clear directions and useful maps, Black’s guidebook provides not only exercise for the legs but enlightenment for the mind.
BMJ, November 2006.
As the title indicates, this is a guide for walking tours of medical history in London, but it is far more than that. It is, in fact, a history of medicine ... This is a delightful book. One need not go to London or take a single one of the seven walks to learn from this most attractive book. I especially enjoyed the modern photographs, sharp and crisp.
Doody's Book Review Service
In this excellent guide, Nick Black ... offers seven walks, each of which illustrates the complex relationships between the various bodies and individuals who dealt with health provision, their triumphs, failures and many conflicts ... This is an absolute must read for those who believe that if we do not learn from the past we are condemned to repeat it.
Nursing Standard
This is an outstanding book for anyone who is interested in the history of medicine in London...I wish I could have purchased this book many years ago.
Medical Sciences History
Walks you'll actually want to go on.
Tom Lamont, Editor, Time Out: London for Londoners
Its strength lies in the guided tours, the magnificent illustrations and, lastly, a series of some 36 brief articles about subjects as diverse as ambulances, almoners, convalescent homes, finance and nurses' leagues. This is a book which anyone interested in the history of either London or medicine will find invaluable.
London Society Journal, Winter 2007
The author provides a fascinating insight into the historical development of healthcare which is relevant not only in London but in the country as a whole
Ulster Medical Journal