On the decision to become a doctor rests the whole design and course of your life.

Being a doctor is something of a love–hate relationship. A recent graduate, who had more than her fair share of difficulties as a student, described the feeling like this: “I am now working in a friendly district general hospital and I love it. I love being a doctor – at least I hate some of it but I am glad I went through medical school, resits and all”.

We also have had our doubts but are glad to be doctors or to have had the good fortune to work with the stars of the profession as well as with some who have sometimes not performed to the high standards patients are entitled to expect. Unlike the famous cricketer, WG Grace, who took 10 years to qualify as a doctor, and said: “Medicine is my hobby, cricket is my profession”, we believe that professionalism should be central to the everyday life of all doctors. But doctors need diversions and we like the approach of Anton Checkov, who said “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress. When I grow weary of one, I pass the night with the other. Neither suffers from my infidelity.”