Theodore Dalrymple - Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

LIFE AT THE BOTTOM

Theodore Dalrymple

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Life at the Bottom

Theodore Dalrymple, 2010

The right of Theodore Dalrymple to beidentified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordancewith the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. Apart from any usepermitted under UK copyright law no part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,without the prior written permission of the pu blisher,nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that inwhich it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on thesubsequent purchaser

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Author, doctor, psychiatrist andjournalist Theodore Dalrymple was born in London in 1949 to a German mother andRussian father. After qualifying as a doctor in 1974, he chose to travel andtake his trade to the far flung shores of Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa and the Gilbert Islands. When he returned to the United Kingdom he worked in the EastEnd of London and then inner city Birmingham in a hospital and the nearbyprison. His medical work has brought him into contact with drug addicts andalcoholics, career criminals and sex offenders, the mentally disturbed andbattered wives and their lives have inspired him to write. He has also appearedas an expert witness in numerous murder trials.

Dalrymple has written widely andregularly for publications as diverse as The Spectator, The New Statesman,The Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph, The SundayTelegraph, The Sunday Times, and The British Medical Journal, as well asmany prestigious American magazines and newspapers.

He also writes under his real nameAnthony Daniels. Now retired from medical work, he is still a prolific writerand splits his time between the UK and France.

Praise for Theodore Dalrymple

'The harsh truths he tells are all the moreshocking because the media, in general, is unwilling to tell them'

Daily Telegraph

Dalrymples clarity of thought, precisionof expression and constant, terrible disappointment give his dispatches fromthe frontline a tone and a quality entirely their own their rarity makes yousit up and take notice

The Spectator

'He actually cares about the people at thebottom of the social heap while public sector jobsworths and slimy politiciansonly pretend to'

Daily Express

'He could not be further from the stereotypeof the 'little Englander' conservative he is arguably our greatest livingessayist'

Standpoint

Dalrymples is the crystal voice of reason.

Literary Review

SECOND OPINION

Last week, a patient arrived in theprison, a fit (though presumably not very skilful) young burglar.

Are you on any treatment? I asked him.

Yes, he said. DF 118, diazzies andamitrippiline.

An opiate analgesic, an addictivetranquilliser and an anti-depressant.

Why? I asked.

Backache, he replied.

Ah, a burglar with a backache. I said.

He smiled at me, and I smiled back. Thenwe had a good chuckle together. I knew, he knew I knew, I knew he knew I knew,and he knew I knew he knew I knew.

Nice one, Doctor, he said as he left theroom, in excellent spirits.

Drug addicts and desperate drunks,battered wives and suicidal burglars, elderly Alzheimer's sufferers and teenagestabbing victims all pass through Theodore Dalrymples surgery and he exposes,with humour and incite, the unseen horror of modern life as never before.

THEEXAMINED LIFE

'Why are you wearing that face mask?'asked one of the security guards.

'Germs, of course,' I said. 'Ubiquitous -they're everywhere.'

'They are for us, too,' he said, 'andwe're not wearing masks.'

This was exactly the same argument as thedoctor uses.

'What consolation was it to the victims ofthe Black Death that there were millions of other victims?' I said.

'The Black Death?' said the security guardto his colleague. 'What's he on about?'

A witty satire on contemporary health andsafety culture. The unnamed anti-hero is a man who takes to heart every tabloidnewspaper health scare, guards himself against every conceivable illness andworries endlessly about his mortality. He wears protective clothing to goshopping when he can't shop on-line and every inch of unprotected skin issmeared in various creams and lotions. Unfortunately, his caution is hiseventual undoing as this elegantly written and amusing novella reaches itsclimax.

THE POLICEMAN AND THE BROTHEL

A Victorian Murder

Deep in the bleak winter of 1846... Jersey is home to tens of thousands of rough-and-ready sailors, who spend their time drinking,chasing loose women and gambling through the teeming and chaotic streets.

The job of keeping order in the crowdeddockside tenements, raucous brothels and riotous public houses falls to electedcenteniers such as the respected and feared George Le Cronier.

There have already been two brutal murderson the island in the last couple of weeks. And now Le Cronier is on his way toarrest the madame of a notorious brothel...

The Policeman and the Brothel tells the true story of what came next one of the most gruesomeand notorious murders the island has seen.

THE WILDER SHORES OF MARX

What is life like in a totalitarianregime?

It is a question which has alwaysfascinated Theodore Dalrymple - whose father was a strict if slightlyinconsistent Communist.

The Wilder Shores of Marx sees the acclaimed writer visit five countries which still labourunder systems inspired by the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and otherluminaries of the left.

He visits North Korea as part of adelegation of British students, and listens in horror to his fellow travellers(in the literal sense only) talk enthusiastically about torturing and murderingpolitical prisoners, while the cowed population, enslaved by their mad leaders,endure a living death.

In grey, miserable Albania, the cult of the late and insincerely lamented Enver Hoxha still burns bright - unlike thelight bulbs.

In Romania - which he visits just beforethe overthrow and brutal execution of the despotic Nicolae Ceaucescu -terrified citizens, starving and desperate, whisper of their longing forfreedom while waiting for the murderous Securitate to knock on the door at anymoment.

Vietnam and Cuba are warmer and brighter - but the same sinister undercurrent is present.

As always, Dalrymple's eye is as sharp ashis pen - not for nothing has he been called 'the George Orwell of our times' -and his observations of these rarely-visited countries are fascinating, wittyand, ultimately, frightening.