Oh Dear, Doctor! is the fourth in the series of Dr Clifford's richly entertaining and true-life accounts of his experiences as a G.P. in a small West Country practice. Once again the inhabitants of Tadchester and Sanford prove that patients are not necessarily a virtue. Like Ralph, the tiny greengrocer, only too aware that an operation might restore marital duties with his huge bowler-hatted wife; the commander's wife who was literally a knock-out; and the dubious joys of being a school medical officer. Even off duty, things don't go too smoothly - there are trials and tribulations of taking his elderly and eccentric father-in-law on a camping holiday through France . . . and the writer's summer school where Dr Clifford ends up holding endless surgeries. Doctor, family man, humourist, philosopher and counsellor, Dr Robert Clifford takes us through his busy life, sharing his patients' problems and joys, tragedies and courage.

At the height of the Vietnam War, thousands of Americans wrote moving letters to Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s pediatrician and a high-profile opponent of the war. Personal and heartfelt, thoughtful and volatile, these missives from Middle America provide an intriguing glimpse into the conflicts that took place over the dinner table as people wrestled with this divisive war and with their consciences. Providing one of the first clear views of the home front during the war, Dear Dr. Spock collects the best of these letters and offers a window into the minds of ordinary Americans. They wrote to Spock because he was familiar, trustworthy, and controversial. His book Baby and Child Care was on the shelves of most homes, second only to the Bible in the number of copies sold. Starting in the 1960s, his activism in the antinuclear and antiwar movements drew mixed reactions from Americans—some puzzled, some supportive, some angry, and some desperate. Most of the letters come from what Richard Nixon called the “silent majority”—white, middleclass, law-abiding citizens who the president thought supported the war to contain Communism. In fact, the letters reveal a complexity of reasoning and feeling that moves far beyond the opinion polls at the time. One mother of young children struggles to imagine how Vietnamese women could endure after their village was napalmed, while another chastises Spock for the “dark shadow” he had cast on the country and pledges to instill love of country in her sons. What emerges is a portrait of articulate Americans struggling mightily to understand government policies in Vietnam and how those policies did or did not reflect their own sense of themselves and their country.

When Lily and Ida meet on a flight to America, they embark on a relationship that is to see them through two very different marriages. Lily wants passionately to help people, and to experience romance and adventure at the same time. Falling in love with a married man was not part of the plan. In order to escape her abusive father, Ida flees to America to marry Buddy, looking forward to a clean slate with her new husband. But is having a house and being Mrs. Someone enough for her? Married life will bring them comfort, distress, joy and tragedy in equal measure as the years unfold. Only their friendship can carry them through. First published in 1988, Dear Doctor Lily follows two women as they navigate the complexities of love, family, and friendship.