Böcker av Theodore Dalrymple

Explains how European intelligentsia turned on Western civilization and paved the way for hedonism and Islamism to run roughshod over a once proud European culture.

"The embargo was a success: the people were starving and the country was in ruins..." Extreme situations have always illuminated the human condition, and in these three stories set in three widely-separated places in times of crisis, Theodore Dalrymple explores the deeper levels of human nature. Theodore Dalrymple is a retired doctor and psychiatrist who has written many books, including Life at the Bottom, Romancing Opiates and Admirable Evasions.

Pit of Shame is an unique account of the life and times of one of the UK's most famous prisons - a fame that flows directly from an account of the execution of Trooper Charles Thomas Wooldridge (CTW) as written by Reading Gaol's best-known prisoner, C.3.3, the pseudonym of Oscar Wilde. Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol, his last work for publication in 1898 is known the world over for its insight and telling phrases, such as 'bricks of shame', 'souls in pain' and 'that little tent of blue, that prisoners call the sky'. Possibly the greatest and most influential artistic work in terms of penal reform and conveying to outsiders the soul desolate nature and experience of imprisonment, the ballad crystalises the degradation, isolation, fear, introspection and sense of loss involved.This new book also looks at the ballad from a fresh perspective: that of a serving prison officer who has spent a substantial part of his career inside the very prison that Wilde wrote about - noting on a daily basis connections between its fabric, the prison system and the ballad as well as with the town of Reading. The result is a fine work that casts new light on Wilde's incarceration, suggests a number of fresh explanations for some lines of the ballad and puts forward an until now unpublished explanation as to why Reading was chosen for Wilde. Indicative of this approach, Anthony Stokes explains why even C.3.3 is not what it seems, why certain lines in the ballad have been misunderstood by 'experts' given the context and times.But Anthony Stoke's book is much more than this. Based on minute research over more than ten years it traces the History of Reading Gaol from early times to the present day, dealing with its role as a bridewell, local prison and today one that carries out ground-breaking work with young offenders. There are also chapters on its use as a place of internment for Irish Republicans in the wake of the Easter Rising, as a top secret Correctional Centre for Canadian troops serving in England during World War II, escape attempts, riots and the executions that took place at Reading over the years including during the time when James Marwood (the inventor of the 'long drop') officiated; much of this based on official records and Execution Log. There are also notes on other interesting prisoners ranging from the notorious Reading baby farmer Amelia Dyer to the Hollywood TV and movie actor, Stacey Keach.But above all it is Oscar Wilde and the Ballad of Reading Goal that permeate and inform this book as the author seeks to combine information about the prison with frequently telling explanations that all too often converge with the more universal nerve that was touched upon by one of England's greatest creative minds - making Pit of Shame a book for every Wilde afficionado, penal reformer and student of English literature.With a special 16 page collection of illustrations charting life in Reading Gaol and of some of its prisoners.

A searing account of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does, written by a British psychiatrist.

Journalist, writer and prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple writes a light-hearted memoir of his lifelong addiction to thinking and how serendipity led him on a journey of discovery.

Presents a collection of essays that ranges over literature and ideas, from Shakespeare to Marx, from the breakdown of Islam to the legalization of drugs, and more. This book attempts to restore our faith in the central importance of literature and criticism to our civilization.

When a country is covered in trash, what does that say about its culture? This passionate plea by The Oldie columnist Theodore Dalrymple is now published for the first time in paperback.

The New England Journal of Medicine is one of the most important general medical journals in the world. Doctors rely on the conclusions it publishes, and most do not have the time to look beyond abstracts to examine methodology or question assumptions. Many of its pronouncements are conveyed by the media to a mass audience, which is likely to take them as authoritative. But is this trust entirely warranted?Theodore Dalrymple, a doctor retired from practice, turned a critical eye upon a full year of the Journal, alert to dubious premises and to what is left unsaid. In False Positive, he demonstrates that many of the papers it publishes reach conclusions that are not only flawed, but obviously flawed. He exposes errors of reasoning and conspicuous omissions apparently undetected by the editors. In some cases, there is reason to suspect actual corruption.When the Journal takes on social questions, its perspective is solidly politically correct. Practically no debate on social issues appears in the printed version, and highly debatable points of view go unchallenged. The Journal reads as if there were only one possible point of view, though the American medical profession (to say nothing of the extensive foreign readership) cannot possibly be in total agreement with the stances taken in its pages. It is thus more megaphone than sounding board. There is indeed much in the New England Journal of Medicine that deserves praise and admiration. But this book should encourage the general reader to take a constructively critical view of medical news and to be wary of the latest medical doctrines.

The cultural death of God has created a conundrum for intellectuals. How could a life stripped of ultimate meaning be anything but absurd? How was man to live? How could he find direction in a world of no direction? What would be tell his children that could make their lives worthwhile? What is the ground of morality?Existentialism is the literary cri de coeur resulting from the realization that without God, everything good, true and beautiful in human life is destined to be destroyed in a pitiless material cosmos. Theodore Dalrymple and Kenneth Francis examine the main existentialist works, from Ecclesiastes to the Theatre of the Absurd, each man coming from a different perspective. Francis is a believer, Dalrymple is not, but both empathize with the struggle to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe.Part literary criticism, part philosophical exploration, this book holds many surprising gems of insight from two of the most interesting minds of our time.

In this, Theodore Dalrymple’s second collection of short stories, he begins to let his imagination run. The absurdity of modern life is fully laid bare when taken to extremes. You will laugh through your tears. ***Satire is prophecy.— Theodore Dalrymple 

Theodore Dalrymple, almost singlehandedly, revived the languishing Essay and in so doing became Britain’s answer to Montaigne. In this, his first foray into the Short Story form, he proves himself a rival of Anton Chekhov. His many devoted fans will be delighted.--------------------------------Some truth can be told only in the form of fiction. That is why I chose to write these stories. — Theodore Dalrymple 

An entertaining new book by psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple about the blind spots of our mind in general and those of eminent people in particular.

First paperback edition of the acclaimed Hardback.

What are the reasons for the decline of our culture? Theodore Dalrymple has spent a lifetime observing it close-up and personal as an inner-city GP and prison psychiatrist. In Nothing But Wickedness he looks at the things that make us behave the way we do, and all the subtle ways in which we delude ourselves and destroy our own culture.

The first biting analysis of our obsession with sentimentality and why it will ruin us.

A beautifully-written and thought-provoking collection of essays on social, political and literary issues as diverse as the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand controversy, violent crime on Britain''s streets, the effects of the welfare state, modern architecture and the respective merits of Shakespeare and Dr Johnson. Dalrymple uses examples from his long career as a prison doctor and his travels to every corner of the globe to illustrate his central view: that Britain is in the throes of social, cultural and political decline.

The word prejudice has come to seem synonymous with bigotry; therefore the only way a person can establish freedom from bigotry is by claiming to have wiped his mind free from prejudice. This book shows that freeing the mind from prejudice is not only impossible, but entails intellectual, moral and emotional dishonesty.