RECENTLY retired Trafford surgeon, Peter Sykes, has lifted the lid on hospital practice with the publication of his novel ‘The First Cut’.

It is entertaining collection of stories set in a fictitious hospital in the North West of England.

Peter worked at Trafford General Hospital as a consultant surgeon for 25 years.

He has first hand experience of what it feels like to be at both ends of a surgical scalpel having had surgery himself at Trafford General.

He insists that the stories are fictional but acknowledges that they are based to a large degree on his experience of local hospitals. Peter also operated at Sale and Brooklands Hospital and at Altrincham General before the theatres at those hospitals closed.

Throughout the 260 page novel the emphasis is on patients and their various ailments and many ‘clinical incidents’ are described –many amusing, some sad, others poignant.

Peter is vice president of the East Cheshire Hospice and all royalties from the sale of the novel will be divided equally between St Ann’s Hospice and East Cheshire Hospice.

The First Cut is available locally at Urmston Books, Chorlton Books, Hale Bookshop or via Amazon – shortly to be available as an e-Book.