A Fortunate Man remembered...50 Years On

Adopting a public history approach, this community exhibition, screenings, talks, and participative research explored the book A Fortunate Man. Published in 1967 the book became recommended reading for trainee General medical Practitioners. It explores the relationship between a rural doctor and his patients and is an intense, probing analysis of the doctor – "Dr John Sassal" in particular – but also the role of the GP more widely in society. It's author was painter, critic and Marxist intellectual John Berger, in collaboration with Swiss documentary photographer Jean Mohr. The doctor was based on Berger’s friend and own GP Dr John Eskell and his practice in and around the Forest of Dean village of St Briavels. Widely praised (though not without some criticism) since its publication, in 2015 the book featured at a Royal College of Art conference celebrating Berger’s diverse and prodigious career. As the panel of doctors discussed the book, one aspect was starkly absent: the people and landscape of the Forest of Dean, the setting for the book. In a weekend of events in June 2018 the University of Gloucestershire’s Reading the Forest project, in partnership with Forest of Dean Local History Society and the villagers of St Briavels, addressed this as A Fortunate Man Revisited, 50 Years On examined the book firmly from the perspective of the real community (St Briavels) and Dr Eskell at the centre of it. What did the book say about the village, and wider Forest of Dean, of the 1960’s? How did it describe the people? What picture did it paint of the real-life Dr Eskell? How accurate is Berger’s depiction and analysis? The weekend included exhibition, talks, discussions and guided walks, as well as screening of films: the 1967 feature on the book filmed locally for BBC TV New Release arts programme; a 1972 BFI-funded docu-drama by Jeff perks filmed in Blakeney and Soudley featuring performances by local people; and cine films from the late 1950s of village life made by Dr Eskell himself