Secrets from the Black Bag

What do these people have in common:
* a 5-year-old boy who dies alone in the middle of the night, killed by the negligence of a psychopathic stepfather;
* an elderly shepherd who wants to stay in his own home with his dog;
* a perplexed forester in the Scottish Highlands who confronts love for the first time, gun in hand;
* an exhausted thief who scrabbles to provide for his massive family and energetic wife; and
* a rebellious London nurse who stitched up an arrogant surgeon near the Benin border?

All are part of the Black Bag world.

Secrets from the Black Bag presents the strifes, strains and triumphs of everyday life in fictionalized stories based on interviews with medical doctors worldwide. They are conflicted, compassionate and not always capable in their care for patients who are struggling with the business of living and dying.

Peek into the human condition from a confidential angle, with a good gossip from the comfort of home, all readable in small doses good for busy people. This book counters the negative portrayals of doctors in the media. Its format of short, numerous chapters allows these stories from the heart to be easily picked up and put down, read in bed or an airport departure lounge. Their international nature is particularly relevant in this age of globalisation. Most stories are set in the twentieth century in diverse countries including England, Australia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tanganyika and New Zealand. These cautionary tales from a vanishing world foreshadow the future.

Secrets from the Black Bag has been compared to James Herriott and William Carlos Williams, and Recommended Reading for medical schools in the UK and Tasmania.