Doctor Shravya Tak is the junior partner at the Clavical Square Surgery. In effect that means that she does most of the work. Shravya has an identity problem. She is proud of being Indian (her father was from Benares) but her mother, an American, belonged to the Shawnee tribe of Kentucky, and brought her up to reject the term 'Indian'. She therefore focuses on her Uttar Pradesh background and is currently writting a book about the state. This does not help today however when she is trying to advise Adrian Palamiter. She has made the mistake of asking him to list his symptoms, and is finding it difficult to stop him talking.
Adrian Palamiter will do anything for anyone. Having finished his modelling for Annaliese, today he is taking the Pimby Posters around the square. The local political parties have also paid him a few pence to distribute their lavish multi-coloured leaflets. To these Palamiter is attaching a stencilled note (he has yet to master the art of using a printer) inviting the residents to an open air gathering celebrating the presence of Luo Jie (who he now venerates as a god). When he told Luo he had been posing as Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, the poet misunderstood him, and smiled politely.
Annaliese Singh is creating a statue in tribute to Rabbi Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi (1550–1625) who wrote Tze'nah u-Re'nah, an early version of the bible written specifically for women (as it was in Yiddish rather than Hebrew). She is using Adrian Palamiter as her model for the learned scholar. Ashkenazi acknowledged the debt he owed in his research to Rashi (1040-1105), who died 52 years before the birth of Richard Coeur de Lion (1157-1199). The English king died in Acquitaine 5 years before Maimonides died in Fastut (Cairo) in 1204. When he died, Maimonides is thought to have been reading his copy of the ethical works of Avicebron, the neoplatonic poet and philosopher from Málaga, known to us today as Ibn G'virol (1021-1058).
Elwin Gruntley, one of the local councillors who has been strongly promoting the plan to close the Clavical Square surgery, is now recovering in the surgery’s rest and recuperation lounge, having been knocked to the ground in what the police say was ‘a fracas’ at the anti-closure protest. Doctor Maddison’s treatment has proved so efficacious that Gruntley has now changed his stance. This morning he is returning home, but before he goes he is visited by Andrew Scatterly, and together they plan a ‘Pimby’ campaign (Please, in my back yard). The local Clinical Commissioning Group issues a furious press statement.
With the forthcoming election, Andrew Scatterly has joined the Save Our NHS Campaign. Just before Easter, he learned on the Activists’ Grapevine that the local Clinical Commissioning Group has decided to close the Clavical Square Surgery and move Doctor Maddison to a larger centre where he can be more carefully managed (you will recall that the CCG has concerns about his approach). Scatterly publicises this plan by distributing a Health At Risk Newsletter, and today there is a large protest in the nearby graveyard. Given the recent polls, members of the local council rush to the square for photo opportunities.
Casual passers-by who wonder at the comings and goings at Number 14, have probably missed the discrete sign (unusually modest for our otherwise struggling NHS) indicating that this is the Clavical Square Medical Centre. In reality it is, and has always been, the GP surgery of Doctor Maddison, an old-fashioned family physician who combines orthodox practice with herbal and homeopathic treatment. His manner (other than his somewhat peculiar eye contact) and his general approach (other than his insistence on imposing a voluntary charge which he donates to MSF) is extremely popular. However the local Clinical Commissioning Group has its doubts.
The new family who, for obscure but nevertheless considerably important reasons, will hereafter be known as the Smiths, has now settled into Number 18. Amongst their number are the father, Aylesbury Smith, the son, Henry Smith and the holy grandchild, Callum. Unfortunately it is not irrelevant that the grandchild’s nickname is Caligula. Henry’s wife, the honourable Selina, occasionally appears, but her role as peripatetic business guru and advisor to the mature (i.e. geriatric) fashion industry, keeps her well away from the hassles of family life. It takes Lucinda Bartoffel less than three days to gather and then disseminate all this information.
