Fiction writers with medical qualifications
January 2008
The definition of 'fiction' is stretched a little, for example to include prose compositions before the concept of fiction really settled down. The list does not include medical poets, notably John Keats, or medical Men of Letters. It is as inclusive as possible and is not a list of recommended writers.
Each name is linked to a brief summary, plus a link to a suitable web site where a good one has been identified. If you have any suggestions for additional names, or a favourite anecdote or web site for any of those already included, please email the details to rjones@bma.org.uk.
Some general sites
Roster of physician writers
List of books and database resources:
http://members.aol.com/dbryantmd/home.html
Doctors who wrote
Short list of five doctors with biographies:
http://www.who2.com/doctorswhowrite.html
Literature, Arts and Medicine Database
Excellent database of about 100 medical writers with bibliographies, summaries, commentaries and alternative sources:
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Main?action=new
Individual doctors
Martin Bax
Founder and editor of the literary journal Ambit, is a developmental paediatrician, and the editor of the journal, Developmental and Child Neurology. He is also a writer and author of cult novel 'The Hospital Ship'.
Mikhail Bulgakov
20th-century Russian literary figure, author of 'The Master and Margarita'.
Ben Byron
UK author of two medical suspense novels
http://www.samsonsquest.com/
Paul Carson
Paul Carson is a doctor based in south Dublin where he runs an asthma and allergy clinic for children. He has published a number of health books and, as well as writing for various medical journals, he was editor of Irish Doctor magazine. His first novel, Scalpel, was published in 1997.
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/library/services/book-promos/100crime/carson.htm
Anton Chekhov
Great Russian dramatist and author.
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html
Peter Clement
US author of several thrillers with a medical theme.
Alex Comfort
Better known as a writer of 'How to do sex well' manuals, also wrote a science fiction novel Tetrarch.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Creator of Sherlock Holmes and a prolific writer of other fiction.
http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsocy.html
http://www.siracd.com/
Robin Cook
Bestselling US thriller writer whose books tend to have medical themes, see any station or airport bookshop for details.
Michael Crichton
Best-selling US thriller writer, with a medical or scientific theme, perhaps best known for Jurassic Park.
A J Cronin
Creator of Dr Finlay and prolific popular author from the first half of the 20th century. Most of his work had a medical theme and much of it gently promoted progressive social ideas.
Warwick Deeping
Remarkably prolific popular author from the early 20th century.
Colin Douglas
Pseudonym for Dr Colin Currie. Scottish writer of several books with medical theme and frequent BMJ contributor.
Alice Dwyer-Joyce
Author of novels in the gothic/romantic genre.
Michael Fitzwilliam
Pseudonym of J.B. Lyons, professor of medical history at the RCSI, who wrote fiction in the 1960s.
R Austin Freeman
Early 20th century mystery writer whose detective John Thorndyke was also a doctor.
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/F_Authors/Freeman_R-Austin.html
Graeme Garden
Better known as a comedian, member of The Goodies team and a regular on 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue', but also the author of a novel The Seventh Man.
Jonathan Gash
A pseudonym, real name John Grant. Creator of the Lovejoy television series. Prolific writer of popular fiction, many books featuring the Lovejoy character.
Tess Gerritsen
American writer of gothic thrillers with a medical theme.
http://www.tessgerritsen.com/
Oliver St John Gogarty
Principally a poet and an activist for Irish independence, and was the basis of the Buck Mulligan character in Joyce's Ulysses. Wrote much that walked the line between autobiography and fiction, hence his inclusion here.
http://www.searcs-web.com/sjg.html
Richard Gordon
Author and humourist who wrote the 'Doctor' series of comic novels, of which Doctor in the House is the best known.
Bernard Knight
A retired professor of forensic pathology, author of many books, including thrillers with a forensic pathology theme and an historical series centred on a 12th century Devon coroner.
http://www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/bernardknight.html
Serge Liberman
Born in Russia in 1942; arrived in Australia in 1951; now GP in Melbourne since 1974. Author of five published collections of short stories including, On Firmer Shores, A Universe of Clowns, and Voices from the Corner.
Thomas Lodge
Elizabethan physician and poet, wrote some volumes of prose and the play 'Rosalyne: euphues golden legacy', which provided the plot for 'As you like it'.
Anne MacLeod
Scottish poet and author.
http://www.11-9.co.uk/authorzone/annemacleod/
Alexander McCall Smith
Author of fifty books, including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children's books, but he is best known for the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. He was born in Zimbabwe (formerly called Southern Rhodesia) and was educated there and in Scotland. He became a law professor in Scotland, and it was in this role that he first returned to Africa to work in Botswana, where he helped to set up a new law school at the University of Botswana. He is currently Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/mccallsmith/
Keith McCarthy
UK pathologist who has published four crime novels.
http://www.keithmccarthy.co.uk/
W Somerset Maugham
Major English literary figure of the 20th century.
http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/smaugham.html
Jed Mercurio
Creator of the TV series Cardiac Arrest using the pseudonym John Macure, and the author of at least one thriller with a medical theme.
http://careerfocus.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/325/7358/S38?
Ogai Mori
Japanese army doctor and medical researcher, whose early writing formed an important part of the Japanese romantic literary movement and whose post-retirement writing laid more emphasis on patriotism and self-sacrifice. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/M/MoriO1gai.asp
Axel Munthe
Swedish doctor whose 'Story of San Michele', a fictionalised tale of a young doctor's life, was a bestseller in the 1930s.
Erlick Nelson
First novel was 'GermLine', published in hardback by Forge Books (Tom Doherty Assoc., NY) in February 2003 and whose upcoming medical thriller is 'The Xeno Solution' (which covers xenotransplantation), due out October 2005.
http://www.nelsonerlick.com/
Michael Palmer
Bestselling US author of medical thrillers.
http://www.michaelpalmerbooks.com/
Walker Percy
US author of six novels and a great deal of non-fiction.
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/percy_walker/
Bill Pomidor
Author of a series of thrillers featuring husband and wife medical detectives.
Francois Rabelais
French sometime author, sometime churchman, a scabrous satirist and the author of 'The lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel'.
Friedrich Schiller
Late eighteenth-century German poet and dramatist, who also wrote some short stories. Worked as an army surgeon.
Arthur Schnitzler
Austrian dramatist and novelist of the early 20th century. Notable for having written "LaRonde", which spawned to film versions.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/s/schnitzl.asp
Richard Seltzer
US surgeon and writer, particularly of short stories.
http://www.teenink.com/Past/2000/December/Interviews/RichardSeltzer.html
David Shobin
US writer of thrillers with a medical theme.
http://www.medicalalumni.org/bulletin/winter_2001/alumni1.htm
Frank G Slaughter
Prolific and hugely popular US author, writing on medical, historical and religious themes, etc.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/slaugh.htm
Tobias Smollett
18th century writer and sometime naval surgeon, perhaps his best known work is 'The expedition of Humphrey Clinker'.
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/smollett.htm
Ray Tallis
English author and poet.
Sir Henry Thompson
Indefatigable 19th century English doctor and scholar, who produced two novels.
Adolfo Valderrama
19th century Chilean doctor and man of letters.
William Carlos Williams
20th century poet and writer of five novels including 'The great American novel'.
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/wcw.html
Tim Willocks
Psychiatrist and writer of 'Green river rising' and other novels not for the squeamish.
Francis Brett Young
Best-selling English author of the first half of the 20th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Brett_Young