My published works amount to a series of scientific papers and a few monographs, generated over the many years when I was a hospital doctor. In collaboration I have also produced a range of widely adopted clinical guidelines, including some in plain language for the general public.

In Winter there may be a sad austerity about Manning’s Pit. This is perhaps evocative of tragedy and suffering, somehow concealed in the landscape and the history of the winding river. In my past visits, opalescent characters have emerged to show me brief fragments of their lives, before fading away behind other distractions. Their narratives have now been captured and integrated into my short story. It has none of the levity so typical of Saki. Even so, it is faithful to the inequality and hardship of a Victorian rural community, struggling to make its way by farming and milling.