Considering his contribution to the worlds of medicine and of letters, there are surprisingly few traces of The Lancet 's founding Editor Thomas Wakley (1795–1862) in English literature. He receives a mention in George Eliot's Middlemarch (“I disapprove of Wakley…he is an ill-intentioned fellow”, complains Dr Sprague, the town's senior physician, who identifies the reforming Dr Lydgate as a Lancet fan); he has three biographies, none widely read today; and is the subject of a clutch of articles, largely focusing on his Lancet years. Nick Black's imaginative new novel, Bare-knuckle Surgeon , aims to remedy this situation, exploring “why, at the age of twenty-eight, Wakley embarked on a venture that in all likelihood would lead to ostracism from the medical establishment if not the whole profession”.
Niall Boyce (Sun,) studied this question.