The Surgeon's Apprentice

An absorbing historical novel which brings vividly to life the practice of medicine in the early nineteenth century In the first part of the nineteenth century, James Kerr, an ambitious young man with a burning vocation to become a doctor, joins his uncle's practice in the North of England, as a surgeon's apprentice. But at that time medicine was still a primitive, brutal business, and James's cherished ideals about the role of the doctor, and the dignity of the medical establishment, are soon shown up as hollow illusions. In his private life, James falls in love with Liddy Landser, young and beautiful daughter of one of his patients. But Liddy's father, proprietor of a local salt-mine, is in financial trouble, and his futile attempts to save the business and family name by entrusting his debts to Edward Harcourt - a man with an equal appetite for power and for female flesh - sink them into penury and disgrace.


Genre: Historical