Close to Where the Heart Gives Out – A Year in the Life of an Orkney Doctor

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As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

When Malcolm Alexander answers an advert for an island doctor, he expects professional challenge, not a reordering of family life. Orkney offers beauty and isolation in equal measure, and the move carries consequences that unfold slowly, shaped by weather, darkness, and the demands of a small community.

In Close to Where the Heart Gives Out, Malcolm reflects on practising medicine at the edge of available resources, where improvisation is routine and care extends beyond people to animals and landscape alike. Days can turn on a sudden storm or a missed ferry. Nights are long, and winter presses hard. Alongside moments of humour and connection sit stretches of doubt and exhaustion, felt keenly by both doctor and family.

The book is attentive to place, capturing the pull of the Orkney islands and the strain they exert. It does not romanticise remoteness, but neither does it turn away from its rewards. Close to Where the Heart Gives Out is a grounded account of work, responsibility, and resilience, and of how living close to the limits can clarify what matters most.