Searching in Secret Orkney

“Searching in Secret Orkney is Bill Bryson with teeth, a study of the life of a GP in a remote location.”  (Councillor John Ross Scott, Former Chairman NHS Orkney)

A phone call from a doctor’s agency takes this GP and his family up to the territory of Orkney and its isles where so many things are unconventional and at times whacky but also simply unethical.

Conversations with patients who mistrust the local GPs lead this visiting doctor to review the resident doctors and the local healthcare. When the first of his many tongue in cheek letters appear in the papers . . . everyone knows change is close.

But at the same time, he questions what man was up to and what happened so long ago to have made the Orkney one of the busiest places in Britain 5000 years ago.

Soon after visiting the unique 5000 year old archaeology of the Orkney, the author conducted the first research into using archaeology for psychological decompression of soldiers returning to the UK.