You Can Hear The Ice Cracking

'You can hear the ice cracking' is a love story, a family tragedy and - in a medical and social setting - a dissection of the ideas of a welfare state... Does it work? If not, why not? Phoebe Finch, an idealistic medical student, falls in love with Precious Ellington, a researcher into healthcare and welfare systems, from Harlem, New York. The clinical disasters affecting Phoebe's family illustrate points made by Precious. And they challenge us to ask what a welfare state is for. Who should benefit? And who should not? Robert Lefever intended to be a professional musician but the music department at Cambridge University showed him this was not a good plan. So he became a doctor - almost by accident - and loved every minute. He created the first NHS group medical practice in South Kensington, one of the first private diagnostic centres in London and the first rehabilitation centre in the world to treat all addictive behaviour and - non medicinally - the anxiety, depression and damaged self-esteem that underlie it. He and his wife, Pat, get to so many operas that it is a surprise - to them and others - that they have time for their day jobs, as a counsellor and a publisher, and for their writing.