The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

The book follows the professional life of Joseph Lister, Quaker, eminent doctor and surgeon of the Victorian era.  Lister diligently, scientifically and systematically worked out how and why wounds became infected.  He may not have understood completely the workings of bacteria, but he did work out that there were microbes that infect wounds and if left to fester killed.  This book, although explicit wasn't gruesome, just factual about medical practices of the time.  It was interesting to understand how medical practice is built on the foundations of previous knowledge.  How difficult it was for Lister to get the egotistical surgeons of London to change their minds about antiseptics, cleanliness and good practice - their egos got in the way of accepting the science.  Obviously written for the layman, an interesting book with a few 'clunky' nuggets of information.  

Despite talking over zoom the book generated a good discussion about history, knowledge, germs and medicine.

Marks out of 10:  between 7 - 9 so highly rated

Words used to describe it:  harrowing, fascinating, very interesting, not for the faint-hearted.

Next Book

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Next Meeting

Zoom - Thursday 11th February 2021

Ok, Let's do your stupid idea by Patrick Freyne

 A collection of amusing memories, strung together with humour, insight and pathos.  These essays by Patrick Freyne contain much that resonates with us all even if they don't all make us chuckle with laughter they do evince a smile.  Amongst the fun there are a few essays that are very deep.  The one, Care, about being a carer, how hard and difficult it can be, but also how rewarding "For every day that I drove home from work with scratches and bruises, feeling like I'd earned my wages, there'd be another where I had experienced the simple force of someone else's love and it felt like I had stolen something."  An entertaining read.

Words and marks out of 10 weren't taken this evening but those who read the book enjoyed it. 

Next book

The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

Next Meeting

13 January 2021 by Zoom

Frieda by Annabel Abs

Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen, the original Lady Chatterley it says in the blurb, but this woman is so much more than an aristocrat stuck in a stifling marriage attracted to some one of the 'lower classes;. Frieda Weekley, nee  von Richthofen the daughter of a Bavarian down on his luck, gambling count, married to a much older English professor was an intelligent, attractive and vivacious woman.  This book is the fictional biography of the woman who inspired, edited, coped with and married the maverick author DH Lawrence, for him she left her husband and her children.  The harsh  laws of adultery at the time meaning no woman could see or look after her children if she had left her husband. She had no rights at all.  The driving pain in the book is the loss of her children.  She comes out of the novel as an interesting, spiky, sensual, well rounded woman.  This book took pains to separate the woman from the more famous husband, to write her as an individual, precocious, indecisive and interesting.  The Germany of the early 20th Century was so interesting, the many different ideas and philosophy being developed, free love and the embryonic psychiatry were well described.

This book generated an excellent discussion over zoom.  We all enjoyed it even if some of us had reservations about the writing.  

Words used to describe it:

Marks out of 10:  between 6 -8

Next book

Ok, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea

by Patrick Freyne

Next meeting

2 December on Zoom (again) 

unless lock down really has ended, but that's unlikely.