Alan Rafferty
Mucus And Marmite
The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat: The Remarkable True Story of the Penicilin Miracle
By Eric Lax
Little, Brown 389pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
ALEXANDER FLEMING FIRST made his name by treating syphilis. The most effective method of the day involved injecting the patient with 600cc (over half a litre) of solution through a hypodermic needle the size of whcih would, nowadays, preclude it from use in anything other than veterinary medicine. The quantity of liquid injected was so great that if it was improperly administered the patient’s arm would have to be amputated. The dextrous Scot’s skillful use of the unwieldy equipment earned him a reputation as a clinician, but, Eric Lax explains in this satisfying history, it was research that really appealed to him.
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I have just spent a wonderful few minutes re-reading the best book review of the year in my opinion. It's by Piers Brendon in September's issue of @Lit_Review. Beautifully captioned as 'Jack the Lad', Brendon takes Fredrik Logevall's JFK: Vol.I apart! It's a laugh a minute. Ouch!
'Perhaps the real modern polymaths are the hidden ones who do not themselves grab the limelight but have the expertise to bring together different fields of knowledge: librarians, teachers, editors of literary journals…'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/masters-of-none
Jan Morris, who died last week, was a much-loved contributor to our pages. In 2017, she wrote a characteristically witty article about the different winds, their various personalities and how they had touched her life: https://literaryreview.co.uk/let-it-blow.