Just finished ‘Fragile Lives’ all about the life and career of heart surgeon Stephen Westaby. I do so admire people who fight against ‘the system’, and Stephen certainly did that turning Oxford into a world centre of excellence. He often saved people’s lives with innovative thinking and inventions and this was sometimes against procedure and ethics committees and so on and so forth. If there was a life to save, he saved it. Who can argue with that? Hospital management apparently! Stephen broke the mold throughout his life…when things got tough during his career he sat before Churchill’s burial place in Woodstock, the village where he lived, and communed with the great man, a nice touch. ‘Never surrender’ that’s how he lived his life. Some reading this book might think he is arrogant (he admits this) but give me arrogance any day when I’m on the operating table, ready to be opened up like a spatchcocked chicken (as I have been!).