'It’s long intrigued me how the world seems to be split into those who are desperate for a prescription, despite all the medical profession’s advice to the contrary, and those who will do anything to avoid a prescription, and want to ‘leave it to nature’. I am fascinated by this perception of nature as being fundamentally benign. You can’t get anything much more natural than salmonella, or cholera, or even man-eating sharks. But still there are those who believe that the adjective natural bestows a healthy glow on whatever noun follows it. And aren’t you also fascinated by the way that general practice seems to revel in situations that set us up for an inevitable fall. How many times have you waxed lyrical about a particular treatment, only to hand over the prescription and have the patient say: ‘Oh, but the other doctor gave me that and it was useless?’ '