...but it’s not just us [turning from medicine to the arts] - there is a long and distinguished tradition of disgruntled medics who have dumped the drudge and daily detritus of the teaching hospital for a life of glamour and celebrity.

Author and dramatist Michael Crichton has undoubtedly attained the title of one of the most instantly recognisable medics in the world. His first major breaks arrived during medical school, writing "articles" for Playboy [sorry, no link for this one...] and securing his first book contract for his non-fiction work Five Patients. It’s clear that inspiration can come from final year attachments after all. Perhaps it’s just as well the young Mr. Chrichton didn’t decide to study in Glasgow - or surely his screenplay for the pilot episode of ER would be a different matter altogether...

DR. BENTON: Okay - we need a Chem 7, CBC, portable chest and C-spine in here STAT!
SHO crosses left and drops sterile pack on floor.
NURSE: Get your own bloody tests. I’m on my tea break.
NEW COURSE MEDICAL STUDENT: [to unconscious patient] so... how do you normally manage around the house - do you get the shopping done okay?

Scotland’s own James Bridie (remembered in the naming of the Bridie Library) studied medicine at Glasgow University, qualifying in 1913. He then pursued a brief and unfulfilling medical career, and his passion for the theatre gradually took over. His last ten years were spent solely as a professional dramatist. Often credited as the founder of modern Scottish theatre, his first play - The Switchback - concerned a doctor tempted by fame and wealth. He also saw humour in the macabre business of Dr. John Knox, basing his drama The Anatomist on the man who was supplied with bodies for dissection by Burke and Hare. Perhaps a dig at our east coast friends - proof that the Glasgow / Edinburgh rivalry was alive and kicking in the 1930s (even if the unfortunate victims of Burke and Hare were not)...