THE mystery around a highly influential book about the relationship between a St Briavels doctor and his patients, published 50 years ago, will be explored this Friday (July 7).

Jason Griffiths and Roger Deeks from Reading the Forest will be describing the author, art critic John Berger, and the doctor, John Sassall, and his practice in an attempt to explain the impact of the publication. The book included photographs by Jean Mohr and has been regularly reprinted since 1967.

Jason told the Review; “Many residents of St Briavels are unaware of the role they and their local doctor played in A Fortunate Man, described at the time as a ‘masterpiece’. The book, published 50 years ago, influenced literature and medicine and was hailed as extraordinary and ground breaking.

“From photographs in the book it was clearly St Briavels and the people were local villagers.

“However, the doctor, the place and the patients were never named and some St Briavels residents today don’t know about the significance of their place in medical and literary history.

“It is surprising that a book that became internationally famous has pas-

sed almost unnoticed by so many people here in the Forest. We hope this event will increase awareness and interest 50 years later.

“My mother-in-law knew the doctor and the characters portrayed in the book,” said Roger Deeks. “It is interesting to test the relationships and ideas described by Berger. We hope other people from the village will contribute their recollections of the era, and others will come to find out about the book.”

Friday’s talk takes place at Coleford Baptist Church at 7pm.

It is part of Coleford Festival of Words and funded, as part of Reading the Forest, through the University of Glou­cestershire and the Foresters’ Forest partnership project.

Visit www.readingtheforest.co.uk for more details.