Dr Finlay's Casebook

A.J. Cronin, author of some of the best-loved novels of the mid-20 century and the creator of Dr Finlay, has been unjustly overlooked by literary biographers. In this, the first fulllength life of this eminent and unjustly neglected writer, Alan Davies recounts the story of Cronin's Scottish childhood as the son of a Protestant mother and Catholic father, his subsequent medical career and his rise to literary prominence, emphasizing throughout the importance of holding at arm's length many of the apocryphal tales that have accumulated around the memory of the author of Hatter's Castle, The Citadel and The Stars Look Down, many of which are based on mistaken autobiographical readings of Cronin's fiction itself. Incorporating an account of Cronin's tempestuous relationship with his publisher, Victor Gollancz, and new revelations about the author's private life, Davies's book paints a clearer portrait of both Cronin the writer and Cronin the man.

James Cameron Stewart is first and foremost an actor, with theatre credits ranging widely from Frankn-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show to Thenadier in Les Miserables, the poet Philip Larkin in Larkin with Women and even his own grandfather in his acclaimed one-man show My Grandfather’s Great War. He is frequently to be heard on BBC Radio 4, is a regular presenter on The Economist podcast and has a sizable oeuvre of audiobooks.