Set within a South London hospital in the 1970s, `The Marble Corridor' is the first of four stories which chart the progress of a newly-qualified doctor from houseman to consultant.
This first tale tracks the multifarious events of a single weekend spent working `on-call' and the unremitting pressure creates a sense of tension which permeates this tale. Towards the end of this marathon stretch of duty, sleep deprivation causes the young doctor to hallucinate and he begins to confuse illusion and reality with some strange and incongruous outcomes.
The other three stories continue to document the author's progress through a series of posts, highlighting some ethical and moral issues along with the hierarchical structure which had to be managed to progress in hospital medicine. Here, as in life, humour and tragedy are intertwined.