The case for slowing down

“Forty-eight years old, profoundly asleep at nine thirty on a Friday night—this is modern professional life.” Henry Perowne, neurosurgeon and central character of Ian McEwan's new book, Saturday (p 368), “hits the [hospital] corridors with an impatient stride his retinue struggles to match,” considers each glass of wine on Saturday a gamble in case he is called to an emergency, and suffers an unfortunate road rage incident. BMJ readers will have shared many of Perowne's experiences, including road rage—if you don't encounter this once a week in London you can't be driving properly. Might road rage be better considered …