Doctor Donovan's bequest - Michael O'Donnell

On 5 July 1998, the 50th birthday of the NHS, a mutiny at the Slagcaster NHS Trust committed to commitment unwittingly exhumed an archive known as "Donovan's Bequest". Donal Donovan was a GP in Slagthorpe during the decade when the 1950s metamorphosed into the Swinging Sixties. His archive includes stories based on the antics of local doctors and their patients. Written before accountants took over the world, these tales, sometimes sad, more often hilarious, celebrate the triumph of humanity over efficiency. Donovan's early stories published in the 1970s attracted a cult following. Michael O'Donnell has selected items from the archive and annotated them for 21st century readers. Aficionados will welcome the return of familiar Slagthorpians including Finbar Aloysius O'Flaherty, singer, poet, intellectual punch-up artist, and much loved general practitioner. New readers will find Donovan's stories as relevant now as when he wrote them because Slagthorpe is not a place but a state of mind.