A psychiatrist's interest in human suffering is not restricted to daily work. Trainees in Oxford, asked to pick out six novels which had been important to them, chose books concerned with “alienation, sexuality and suicide” (Harrison & Day, 1988). Respondents to such a survey in the future might well include The Comforts of Madness (Sayer, 1988), surprise winner of the Constable Trophy for fiction in 1988 and subsequently the coveted Whitbread prize. It is former psychiatric nurse Paul Sayer's first book. He started writing in his twenties after taking a break from nursing to run a corner shop with his wife. In his spare time he read. He explains, “I was standing in the corner shop one day, and I just felt this urge to write” (Winder, 1989). He returned to nursing and at the same time, started to write about a world that was familiar to him.

It is a common assumption throughout the world that people may be put in one of two categories, male or female, and that members of each group share common attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. However, variations in how male and female behaviour are defined in the different groups may be numerous.

Community leadership for mental health is of increasing importance in developing areas of the world. As changes such as urbanisation and indus trialisation affect these areas, their mental health problems are becoming more apparent. These include conditions requiring either curative or cus todial care in an often distant hospital, but probably most others are more appropriately managed by inte grating mental health into primary health care, closer to patients' homes (Giel & Harding, 1976; Harding, 1980; WHO, 1984a).

The 40th anniversary celebrations at Keele are proving to be a lively acknowledgement that the University is now firmly back on its feet and has a renewed confidence in its baptismal vows. There has indeed been a recovery of Keele's raison d'être to provide multi-faculty education (all students study an arts and science subject), to pioneer a Foundation Year to allow more informed choice of Honours courses, and to accommodate undergraduates as well as many staff on its leafy 18th century estate. The Vice Chancellor has succeeded in putting Keele back in the black, and on the map, and now plans to increase the number of students to 6,000 in the next decade.

We decided to evaluate the recommended reading for US consultation liaison fellowships (Mohl & Cohen Cole, 1985). Our group was open to interested doctors who had either passed Part I or who had relevant previous experience. The seminar group met in the evenings every two weeks for six months and all members shared the synopsis and presentation.