This book is a set of anecdotes, stories, travelogues, film and book reviews, essays and even fairy tales. All of these are representative of Ralph Crawshaw’s work, which has been published over a period of about 35 years, and they have been skilfully edited into eleven sections covering a broad range of topics. They make compelling reading. The book reflects the extensive experience of the author as a physician, psychiatrist, international medical diplomat, leader and opinion maker, ethicist, writer, and last but not least, as a compassionate fellow human being.

The editor/author advises the reader to pick and choose the chapters which may be of particular interest, treating the collection more like a smorgasbord than a full meal to be consumed from beginning to end at one sitting. A short summary at the beginning of each section facilitates this. Despite being over 600 pages in length, the layout of the book makes for easy reading. The eighty one individual chapters are short (about two to twenty pages), so it is easy to fit in a chapter between activities or at bedtime. As a reviewer, I felt compelled to read the entire book …