RAYMOND TALLIS was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester until 2006. A poet, novelist and philosopher, he was listed by the Independent in 2007 as one of fifty 'Brains of Britain'. In 2005 Prospect magazine named him one of Britain's top 100 Public Intellectuals. Tallis was also elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience, and holds honorary degrees from the universities of Manchester and Hull for his work in philosophy. The Raymond Tallis Reader was published in 2000 by Palgrave Macmillan and his most recent work, Hippocratic Oaths, was published in 2004 by Atlantic Books.