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An autobiography such as Owen Wade’s When I Dropped the Knife (Pentland
Press, £17.50, ISBN 1 85821 418 1) is a struggle for the lay reader. Wade
has obviously kept detailed diaries of a career that led from his early days of
surgery in Wales, through the war years, to a distinguished place in academic
medicine, including important research on pneumoconiosis, heart disease and
drugs. The narrative plods a bit—”I was downcast” or “it was very sad” are
typical observations—but the many book buyers who are fascinated by
medical details will be rewarded.