1. Richard Gordon1

2. Richard Gordon is the pen nameused by Gordon Ostlere (bornGordon Stanley Ostlere on 15September 1921), an Englishsurgeon and anaesthetist. AsRichard Gordon, Ostlere haswritten numerous novels,screenplays for film andtelevision and accounts of popularhistory, mostly dealing with thepractice of medicine. He is mostfamous for a long series of comicnovels on a medical themestarting with Doctor in the 3. Gordon worked as an anaesthetistat St. Bartholomews Hospital(where he was a medical student)and later as a ships surgeon andas assistant editor of the BritishMedical Journal. He has publishedseveral technical books under hisown name including Anaestheticsfor Medical Students (1949),later published as Ostlere andBryce-Smiths Anaesthetics forMedical Students in 1989;Anaesthetics and the Patient(1949), and Trichlorethylene 4. The early Doctor novels, set inthe fictitious St Swithins, ateaching hospital in London, wereinitially witty and apparentlyautobiographical; later booksincluded more sexual innuendoand farce. The novels were verysuccessful in Britain in Penguinpaperback during the 1960s and1970s. Richard Gordon alsocontributed articles to Punchmagazine and has published bookson medicine, gardening, fishingand cricket.