John Berger

Abstract In this book, Iona Heath writes about reading John Berger’s writing over more than fifty years and her friendship and correspondence with him over the best part of twenty years. She found that both of these interacted profoundly with her work as a general practitioner in a deprived urban area in London. For Iona Heath general practice is a quite extraordinary undertaking: every working day, sitting with a succession of unique individuals, each worried about some aspect of their health or life circumstances, many burdened by unspoken fears, and each seeking some form of answer. Starting with A Fortunate Man, when she was an ignorant but hopeful undergraduate medical student, she found reading John Berger on any subject had something new to tell her about the aspirations and detail of her work: clues about how to look and how to listen and much else. Later when they start to correspond, Iona Heath found herself in the privileged position of being able to check her understanding directly with the writer and on each occasion found deeper levels of awareness and insight. She is convinced that reading John Berger made her a better doctor.