Merde And Mandarins

FOREWORD Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth, who had broken his leg jumping onto the stage after shooting Lincoln. Dr. Mudd set Booth's leg and was later sentenced to life in prison for aiding and abetting an assassin – he was a doctor and he claimed, “He treated the body in front of him”. It took 137 years to clear his name. It is this story that inspired my character, Sigmund Merde, Ghost in my previous book, Ghost and Ragman Roll. Sigmund Merde, and the spirit of all doctors that treat the body in front of them, regardless of who it is or the consequences, moves on in this sequel. It seems such an alien concept in this day and age, where we allow self-interest, politics and other modern day influences, survival even, to colour what we know we should do; what is proper: I believe this has been the driving force behind my novels, social fairness. My books are humorous, but, as Peter Ustinov said, “Comedy is a funny way of being serious”. A Mandarin, in the political context in Britain, is a high-ranking Civil Servant, perceived to be outside political control. The name said to have come about because their elaborate language is often as hard to understand as Chinese; likely deliberately so.