John Salinsky

I guess you must have heard of James Joyce's famously impossible novel, Ulysses, or you wouldn't be reading this. You may have had a go at the book but soon given up; probably in the third 'episode', which is quite challenging. You may have bought a guide to Ulysses and found that was quite hard to understand too I have been reading and studying Ulysses on and off since I first discovered it in my parents' bookcase at the age of 12. Later on, I looked at some of the guides to the book and found them a bit overwhelming too. So I decided to write my own book. It doesn't go into all the detailed references, but there is enough explanation to let you understand a lot and enjoy everything. Some of the characters will stay in your mind like friends for life. You will find much of it poetic and moving. You will also find yourself laughing out loud because Ulysses is full of jokes and comical events. So go and buy the Penguin paperback edition along with John's Guide. And let's get started

You (Desmond) are woken in your hotel room by the bedside phone ringing at 2 a.m. A damsel in distress is calling you from the room immediately above. She begs you to come and rescue her at once as two men are about to attack her. The damsel, who is young, blonde and beautiful, explains that she is an MI5 agent and her assailants (who are identical twins) are employees of a foreign power in search of a mysterious brief case, known as 'The McGonagall.'You suddenly find yourself in dangerous world full of spies, threats, glamour and betrayal. You are knocked senseless in a Soho nightclub and wake up in a rat- infested cellar. You are threatened with torture by the twins but rescued by a retired Colonel. After a number of other adventures, including a boxing match with dogs, everyone gets decorations and Frank, the writer, rewards you and your damsel with a glamorous society wedding and a working honeymoon on the Moon. As the plot develops, you keep complaining to the writer about the way you are treated. The Readers Group also give the writer a hard time with their critical comments. Night Bell is a hilarious metafictional spy adventure in which 'you' play the leading role

Alvin Green has `accidentally' committed a violent crime and is on the run. The police are after him and so is his victim, bent on revenge. He decides to flee on a train travelling to Scotland. But the 9.35 to from King's Cross to Edinburgh is no ordinary train; as Alvin soon discovers, it is populated by glamorous young women from films by Alfred Hitchcock who want to draw him into their own plots. In case he needs legal advice there is also a barrister in attendance. Can this be a real train? Of course not. Alvin and his train are the creation of aspiring novelist Andrew Brownrigg, who is serving a prison sentence for a similar offence to that of his fictional hero. Fortunately for Andrew, Gainsborough Open Prison is about to start a Creative Writing Class: and he soon becomes tutor Jenny Patterson's favourite student.

The collection includes: *

‘When I want to know the real rock-bottom truth about what happens all the time in this doctoring life, what happens to us, and to the folks who bring us their hearts and worries to be heard, that’s when I turn, every time, to the novelists, the playwrights, the poets, the essayists, who have given us the sights and sounds, the feel, of all that goes on, minute by minute. What Tolstoy and Chekhov knew, we need to know for ourselves, for our own sakes, as we live out our medical lives.’ William Carlos Williams ‘The most fundamental of all consulting skills is genuine curiosity about other people, the constant urge to wonder ‘Why are they as they are?’ We should open our minds to the life of the imagination not just for its entertainment value, but for the mindset of curiosity it engenders in us. Such books as John Salinsky describes in this and his previous volume combine powerful opportunities for our own professional growth with pleasure and recreation too.’ Roger Neighbour in his Foreword ‘This carefully assembled, wonderfully telling book is a “companion,” for sure, a lasting and most helpful one, for the medical travelling that awaits us.’ Robert Coles in his Foreword.

Guidelines are powerful instruments of assistance to clinicians capable of extending the clinical roles of nurses and pharmacists. Purchasers and managers perceive them as technological tools guaranteeing treatment quality. Guidelines also offer mechanisms by which doctors and other health care professionals can be made more accountable to their patients. But how can clinicians tell whether a guideline has authority and whether or not it should be followed? Does the law protect doctors who comply with guidelines? Are guideline developers liable for faulty advice? This timely book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the many medical and legal issues arising from the current explosion of clinical guidelines. Featuring clear summaries of relevant UK US and Commonwealth case law it is vital reading for all doctors health care workers managers purchasers patients and lawyers.

Based on the "Medicine and Literature" column in "Education for General Practice", this text shows how parallels between the characters in literature and the consulting room can be made through the understanding the authors had of the human predicament.