Abstract
Looking back covers the highlights of my career. When I qualified as a doctor in 1945 medicine, by present day standards, was rather primitive with few effective therapies a good bedside manner was important. But there was little bureaucracy. Today it has changed out of all recognition as has the growth of bureaucratic control and meaningless Government targets The 1950s saw the start of this revolution in both new and highly effective drugs and high tech investigative techniques.. Two years in the army taught me little medicine but surely matured my outlook on life. On return to civilian medicine I learned about metabolic medicine and thanks to a year as a Fulbright fellow in the USA I was introduced to the problems of Wilson's disease which set the course for the rest of my life's work. This was continued with the development of effective therapies, in the environment of the University of Cambridge and at Addenbrooke's Hospital. On reaching retiring age I was able to continue work at University College Hospital and then the Middlesex Hospital in London until I took a well earned retirement at the age of 80 years.