My partners in the practice think it rather odd when I tell them I take a bundle of unread BMJs from the preceding three months on holiday with me, for recreational reading. Relax, they say, get away from medicine for a while. But they are wrong. Apart from the benefit that, when read, I can discard them, giving me extra room in the case for packing books to take home, I do find reading several BMJs in rapid sequence very relaxing.

Looking back to childhood, I remember my elder brother returning from boarding school and sitting himself happily in an armchair with a pile of copies of the Eagle …