How can you imagine that a surgeon, who was born more than a hundred years ago, managed to have his name preserved in surgical textbooks still bearing his name nowadays? "Hamilton Bailey " is such a legendary name. Bailey never had the manual dexterity required for a surgeon. Early in his career, he got abscess of the hand which led to the amputation of his left index finger (as was the treatment in the pre-antibiotic era). He was poor at socialising and he was never welcome by patients and colleagues. He even had intractable manic-depressive illness and had a close shave from leucotomy. The secret of his tremendous productivity in textbook writing must be indebted, at least in part, to his wife Veta. This book is very enjoyable to read ... the only difficulty for me is to overcome the tons of unfamiliar names and places!