For courses in physical organic chemistry.

This classic text is characterized by its clarity, careful choice of examples, and its general approach that is designed to lead to a ready understanding of the subject matter.

Paul Lambert, a quiet introspective young man, is thrown, bewildered and unprepared, into the daunting world of a busy surgical unit. Through his eyes numerous 'patient episodes' are described - many amusing, some serious, others poignant but all very 'human'. After early misadventures, both surgical and romantic, he gains confidence and experience and becomes a key member of the team. Had James Herriot been a young surgeon, not a vet, these are the tales he might have told.

Whilst Paul and Kate work alongside each other as doctor and nurse on the surgical ward, strains in their relationship emerge. And when Kate's baby dies and Paul's inexperience costs lives, doubt and despair hang in the air and their marriage appears to be doomed. However, in a dramatic turn of events, Paul saves the life of a critically ill patient and Kate is finally able to bid an emotional farewell to the child she has lost. Will their marriage survive the stresses of their hospital work and their past traumas?

What really goes on 'behind the screens' of a busy hospital ward? The heroes of the novel are Paul Lambert and his girl friend Kate Meredith. Paul, a quiet and introspective young doctor, tells the real-life tales of some of his patients, at a time forty years ago when care and compassion ruled supreme. Kate is a nurse who learns more about patient care when she is admitted as a patient to her own ward than she does from all her nursing tutors and text books! Some stories are humorous, some sad, others poignant, but all are very 'human'. There is the tale of the wife who becomes pregnant two years after her husband's vasectomy, the milkman's tattoo that was mischievously altered whilst he was anaesthetised and the case of the elderly spinster who brought her pregnant cat to the emergency department! These stories explore many facets of hospital life; the sense of care that existed within healthcare at this time, the anxiety experienced when treating a fellow human being, the pain felt when patient outcomes are unfavourable and the chronic tiredness resulting from long hours on duty, It becomes clear that humour and compassion make wonderful medicine. From the author of The First Cut