The Citadel

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A. J. Cronin, author of 'Citadel' and 'Keys of the Kingdom', dies". New York Times. 10 January 1981 . Retrieved 22 May 2021.

The Citadel is the morality tale of the initially idealistic Scottish Doctor Andrew Manson who starts off working in the mining towns of the South Wales valleys where he makes liberal use of explosives to remedy public health nuisances before descending into the vanity fair of fashionable London doctors, who specialise in conditions which cost a lot of money to treat, where he reaches a crisis point before returning to the narrow path of virtue. Annan N. Our Age: The Generation That Made Post-war Britain. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; 1990. Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scottish novelist, dramatist, and non-fiction writer who was one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century. His best-known works are The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films. He also created the Dr. Finlay character, the hero of a series of stories that served as the basis for the long-running BBC television and radio series entitled Dr. Finlay's Casebook. Cronin may have used the citadel as a metaphor to describe Britain’s dire healthcare situation of his time, but a more optimistic interpretation is that he saw the grand citadel as a vision of what healthcare in Britain could aspire to become.Hodges S. “Cronin, Archibald Joseph (1896-1981)”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2004. It is claimed, with some justification, that the book strongly influenced the result of the 1945 British general election, when the voters rejected the war hero Churchill in favour of the less charismatic social reformer, the Labour leader Attlee. This Labour government established the NHS in 1948. The seeds of the NHS were sown in Tredegar, home town of the NHS’s architect, Aneurin Bevan. Cronin spent three formative years in this town (“Aberlaw” in The Citadel). The Medical Aid Societies set up by the Miners’ unions in South Wales inspired Bevan to extend free health care to the entire nation. In Adventures in Two Worlds, Cronin says: “In actual fact this scheme can definitely be regarded as the foundation of the plan of socialized medicine which was eventually adopted by Great Britain. Aneurin Bevan, who was mainly responsible for the national project, and at one time a miner at Tredegar, and here, under the local aid organization, the value of prompt and gratuitous treatment for the worker was strongly impressed upon him.” Launching the NHS, Bevan said: “All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain the benefits we had in Tredegar for a generation or more. We are going to “Tredegarise” you”8. Bevan and Cronin are not known to have met, but, given their mutual connections with Tredegar and their fame, it would seem highly likely that they did. Dr. Manson also has less positive characteristics that affect his personal and professional choices. Besides being a skilled doctor dedicated to his patient’s welfare, he is also overly proud and competitive. Many of the dramatic events revolve around which of these traits take prominence in Dr. Manson’s personal and career choices. I found myself often thinking of how pride is one of the seven deadly sins. I do like that Dr. Manson is portrayed as not overly heroic but as a man with faults. The reader will not always like Dr. Manson or his choices. However, I did find some of the switches in which of Dr. Manson’s traits became prominent to be a bit abrupt and melodramatic. All about the doctor turned novelist whose heart always remained in Scotland". The National. 3 January 2021 . Retrieved 13 August 2023. Since Manson has accused the incompetent surgeon of murder, he is vindictively reported to the General Medical Council for having worked with an American tuberculosis specialist, Richard Stillman, who does not have a medical degree, even though the patient had been successfully treated at his clinic. Stillman's treatment, that of pneumothorax, involved collapsing an affected lung with nitrogen, and was not universally accepted at the time.

A.J. Cronin: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk . Retrieved 13 August 2023. a b Liukkonen, Petri. "A. J. Cronin". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. AJ Cronin (1896-1981), an author little known to those below the age of fifty, was arguably the most successful novelist writing in English in the 1930s. His best known novel, The Citadel, was published in 19371. The book paints an unflattering portrait of British medicine in the inter-war years. It is widely thought that the book influenced the result of the 1945 general election in Britain, and the subsequent establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) by the Labour government in 19482. The Citadel anticipates such phenomena as evidence-based medicine and continuing medical education. This paper examines the influence of the novel and argues that although Cronin’s novel did significantly influence public opinion in Britain in favour of socialized medicine, the novel was never intended as propaganda for a state-controlled national health service. On the contrary, Cronin was against state control. Analysis of the novel is informed by recent biographical revelations about Cronin, and the blurring of the margin between fact and fiction in Cronin’s life and work is examined.Watt G. The Citadel: A Potent Reminder of Life Before the NHS. BJGP Library: Br J Gen Pract. 2015;65(638):480 This book is the journey of a young doctor fresh out of college, eager to help everyone with his knowledge and skills who ends up lost in the charm of money and fame and losses all interest in the morals and values he once fought for. This is a story of a woman who fell in love with an honest hardworking doctor who went to great lengths to save lives, only to find him changing for the worse into someone whom they both despised. The story of her struggles to make him realise his mistakes. This is a book about medical ethics and what it means to be a doctor. It is a great read and all aspiring medical students must definitely read this stunning book. Episode 5: Andrew informs Dr Llewellyn that he intends to meet with the other medical assistants that evening and that he expects them to join forces in refusing to pay 20% of their income to him. However, to Andrew's dismay, during the meeting that follows he fails to gain the necessary support from his fellow medical assistants. In his despair at the hopelessness of his situation, Christine convinces Andrew to study for the M.R.C.P. qualification offering to help him with the language proficiency requirements. The arduous combination of work and study is stressful to Andrew, who takes his frustrations out on Christine. However, he travels to London and sits the examinations where his oral examiners are Sir Robert Abbey and Dr. Maurice Gadsby (both of whom feature again later in the series). He passes. Immediately on his return from London he is called to an accident in the mine, where, under dangerous and challenging circumstances, he amputates the trapped leg of a miner. Christine informs Andrew that she is pregnant. One morning, five months into her pregnancy, she mentions to Andrew that she is worried about the state of the bridge, and Andrew promises to ask the committee to do something about it. However, the bridge collapses when Christine is crossing it. Whilst Christine does not appear to suffer significant injuries to herself, she miscarries the baby and Dr. Llewellyn informs Andrew that she is unlikely to ever bear another child. Andrew's research into silicosis in anthracite workers is progressing well, and he applies for an M.D. on the basis of his thesis. His experiments involve testing silica on [guinea pigs, and there are local complaints about vivisection for which Andrew has no licence. An official from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals comes and seizes the guinea pigs, and Andrew is brought before the local Committee under threat of dismissal. In his defence Andrew informs the committee that the blood they reported to have seen in his home laboratory was simply a chemical that he had spilt. He compares the continued use of white mice and canaries down the mine to his use of guinea pigs – both examples of sacrificing the lives of animals to save those of humans. Furthermore, he states that if his research is successful then miners and their families who suffer because of silicosis would have the benefit of receiving compensation. The committee votes, and the majority decision is that he should stay in his role. Andrew's response is to resign his position. He informs Christine that they will live in London instead. Some of Cronin's novels also deal with religion, which he had grown away from during his medical training and career, but with which he became reacquainted in the 1930s. At medical school, as he recounts in his autobiography, he had become an agnostic: "When I thought of God it was with a superior smile, indicative of biological scorn for such an outworn myth." During his practice in Wales, however, the deep religious faith of the people he worked among made him start to wonder whether "the compass of existence held more than my text-books had revealed, more than I had ever dreamed of. In short I lost my superiority, and this, though I was not then aware of it, is the first step towards finding God." E le stelle stanno a guardare ( RAI), featuring Orso Maria Guerrini, Andrea Checchi, and Giancarlo Giannini