A Fortunate Woman
A Country Doctor’s Story
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A Fortunate Woman
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Narrated by:
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Pippa Haywood
About this listen
A Fortunate Woman is a compelling, thoughtful and insightful look at the life and work of a country doctor. Funny, moving and not afraid of the dark, it will speak to listeners everywhere.
Polly Morland was clearing her late mother’s house when she found a battered paperback fallen behind the family bookshelf. Opening it, she was astonished to see an old photograph of the remote, wooded valley in which she lives. The book was A Fortunate Man, John Berger’s classic account of a country doctor working in the same valley more than half a century earlier. This chance discovery led Morland to the remarkable doctor who serves that valley community today, a woman whose own medical vocation was inspired by reading the very same book as a teenager.
A Fortunate Woman tells her compelling, true story, and how the tale of the old doctor has threaded through her own life in magical ways. Working within a community she loves, she is a rarity in contemporary medicine: a modern doctor who knows her patients inside out, the lives of this ancient, wild place entwined with her own.
Revisiting Berger’s story after half a century of seismic change, both in our society and in the ways in which medicine is practised, A Fortunate Woman sheds light on what it means to be a doctor in today’s complex and challenging world. Interweaving the doctor’s story with those of her patients, reflecting on the relationship between landscape and community, and upon the wider role of medicine in society, a unique portrait of a twenty-first century family doctor emerges.
Includes an accompanying PDF with photographs by Richard Baker.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Polly Morland (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Polly Morland and Richard Baker have more than done justice to the original John Berger book—and produced a work that stimulates the eye and mind in equal measure." (Alain de Botton)
"All human life is here in this evocative portrayal of the challenges and joys of rural family doctoring in modern times. Enthralling and uplifting." (James LeFanu, author The Rise & Fall of Modern Medicine)
"I was consoled and compelled by this book’s steady gaze on healing and caring. The writing is beautiful." (Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater and Ghost Wall)
What listeners say about A Fortunate Woman
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emmajo
- 16-12-23
loved this
loved the stories - laughed and cried at the gentle storytelling of people's lives through the doctors eyes. could have read much more!!! didn't want it to end....
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matilda
- 28-05-23
Enlightening
Enjoyable and interesting to hear how primary care and GP’s work have been impacted by government policy and targets. Also beautiful narrated and written
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dr
- 05-02-23
Hopeful
Having read both the book that inspired this one and listened to this, I am hopeful that it will give people some understanding of how a good GP is so much more than knowing guidelines. This is beautifully written and beautifully read. I work in a GP surgery and it captures so much of what this entails. The community is lucky to have this GP in their midst.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bookworm
- 24-06-22
Every GP should read this.
This book is brilliant and shows how empathetic and wonderful a GP could be. With a little time and patience with their patients both parties could benefit. Based on a 1950 GP practice the writer follows a modern Dr in her albeit 'rural' practice, there are nuggets of wonderful relations. Should be an example to follow rather than the cold various remote 10 minute phone triarge system. Read and enjoy.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Private
- 10-06-22
Timeless classic
Evocatively captures the love and intellectual rigour that informs every decision by a GP, who has worked to establish a true relationship with their patents. (If only more did do.)
Timeless classic that could usefully inform change, to shore up in the NHS as pandemic ebbs.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rosie
- 20-08-23
Excellent story
A reflection of the life of a rural GP trying to maintain the personal touch throughout a pandemic and the changes happening in Primary care in the 21st Century
It is unfortunate that not all GPs are able to make it continue to work in this way due to chronic underfunding of the NHS and primary care specifically. This teamed with the vast increase in workload cannot be sustained so everyone involved will lose out eventually and that saddens me.
The narrator was excellent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Victoria
- 04-10-22
The sort of GP you wish you had
Fantastic listen. I work in Primary Care as a nurse. I only realised how very hard these GP’s work when I had to sit in with them because of doing a prescribing course. Our doctors & other care workers need to be more valued in our society
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- An amateur
- 10-12-22
Heartfelt & refreshing
Loved it & a soothing balm in today's cynical world where its common to bash the NHS. Adam Kay's opposite, she elevates Medicine and reinjects it with much needed romanticm. Written with beautiful poetry. Even the small and seemingly banal moments are written with great respect.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-04-23
Twee twaddle
Painful listening for any current doctor, my mistake in thinking this would be an interesting and relevant tale.
Overall very disappointing.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alžběta
- 03-08-23
Relaxing and moving.
Inspired by and paying homage to "A Fortunate Man" by John Berger, "A Fortunate Woman" is a lovely and moving story of a GP's life and experience looking after patients in rural England. It's a relaxing and pleasant book that celebrates the simple joys of daily life and the healing beauty of nature.
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