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Professor Edzard Ernst was born in Germany not long after the end of World War II and grew up with guilt about what had happened in the years before he was born as well as an insatiable curiosity - with the two not being entirely entirely unconnected. He also developed an attitude of speaking his mind - as an early challenge to his step-father about the death of six million Jews in the course of the war proved. In his teens he wasn't determined to become a doctor - he had a hankering to be a musician - despite the fact that it was the family business, so to speak, but came round to the idea and practiced in various countries before settling in Exeter as Professor of Complementary Medicine at the university.
I've always been doubtful about complementary/alternative medicine, feeling that it was rather like religion - fine if you had faith, but with troublesome undertones - and I picked up Professor Ernst's memoir, keen to see what an academic and skilled research scientist would make of something which excited so much passion amongst its adherents. I'll confess to being just a little nervous as I opened the book - Imprint Academic have a solid reputation for the 'academic' nature of their books (as you might have guessed) and they don't always make for easy reading for the layman.

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