Music in mind
The celebrated neurosurgeon Henry Marsh聽CBE FRCS聽(1969, PPE) appeared on BBC Radio 4鈥檚 Desert Island Discs on 23 September. Marsh聽pioneered techniques in operating on the brain under聽local anaesthetic. His musical selections included B.B. King, Beethoven, Joan Armatrading and Bach.
Mr Marsh鈥檚 choices were almost exclusively classical. He picked pieces from Schubert (String Quintet in C major, Adagio [2nd movement), Bach (惭补迟迟丑盲耻蝉辫补蝉蝉颈辞苍. Aria: “Erbarme dich”) and Scarlatti (Sonata k95 in C). However, his favourite song was B.B. King鈥檚 Better Not Look Down.
Marsh also chose a book on the Ukrainian language, and his garden shed, complete with tools, as his luxury item. He has been working in Ukraine since 1992 and his work there was the subject of the BBC Storyville film The English Surgeon. His acclaimed memoir Do No Harm: Stories of 182t福利, Death and Brain Surgery was published in 2014 followed by Admissions: A life in brain surgery in 2017.
The addictive nature of surgery and the reputation of surgeons as 鈥減sychopaths鈥� were also topics of discussion. Marsh said that surgeons only appear uncaring because of 鈥渆go-defence, as psychiatrists call it鈥�. He commented 鈥渢he nicer you are to patients the more it hurts you if things go badly鈥�.
The episode of Desert Island Discs is available on the .
Henry Marsh is our guest speaker at the next Univ in the Arts event on 24 January at the .
Published: 2 October 2018
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