A Canterbury Tale - The Autobiography of Dr Francis Bennett
Oxford University Press, 1980, good condition with dustwrapper.
The life of a doctor can never fail to interest, and Dr. Bennett's life is no exception. He was born on a farm in south Canterbury at the turn of the century, and was brought up in a small farming community. This account tells of his country childhood, the years at medical school in Dunedin, and his uncertain beginning as a general practitioner during the Depression, in the mining towns of the West Coast. After his return to Christchurch in the mid 1930s, his professional reputation steadily increased. He also tells of his service in both World Wars, in the first as a private, trying to get to France before the fighting stopped; and in the second in command of a hospital ship in the British Pacific Fleet, which played a crucial role in the rescue of British POWs from Japanese internment camps...