Doctor who knew best

SIR – I was very sorry to read of Richard Gordon’s death (Obituaries, August 15). I particularly enjoyed his “straight” novels, of which one in particular stands out: The Medical Witness (1971).

The story of the fictional Dr John Rumbelow has much in common with the life of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the eminent Home Office forensic pathologist, but they differ in that Spilsbury was a splendid fellow, while Rumbelow was both conceited and spectacularly selfish.

I also recall the textbook Ostlere and Bryce-smith’s Anaesthetics for Medical Students, for which he used his real name Gordon Ostlere. It ends engagingly:

“You are now probably too terrified to go anywhere near an anaesthetic trolley. If so, this is no bad thing.” Dr Michael Barley

Hove, East Sussex