Author Biography
G. Barclay Robertson, best known as 'Barry', wrote this book because, now 80, he was diagnosed as an insulin Dependent diabetic (Type 1) in 1948,the year the N.H.S. arrived. Educated at Leith Academy in Edinburgh, with English as his best subject, his ambition was to become a journalist, but the 'Men in the White Coats' at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary rejected his choice. You'll need daily injections (now four), a strict diet taken at set times - 'No, no, think of something else.'His uncles owned a big wholesale ironmongery business in Dundee, so the 'something else' finished up with a threeyear apprenticeship with a well known engineer, mill-furnisher and machine tool merchant in Edinburgh. Completing this, he decided to learn about architectural ironmongery, joined another business specialising in that trade and, at 23, was their representative within six months, covering the north of Scotland. Since childhood, surgery and ill health dogged his life - hypoglycaemic attacks caused by too little sugar in the blood brought several accidents on motorways whereby losing his licence brought early retirement at 57, since when he took up his wish to write. Articles, short stories and playwriting have brought him pleasure, success and a little income, but when he realised the drama in the story of the discovery of insulin, intensive research into the behaviour of the team at Toronto University in 1922 revealed every aspect of human conduct towards each other. Dogs were used for research in the laboratories bringing enormous elation when they lived, bitter disappointment when they died; controversy about the findings, dislike and jealousy between members of the team, frustration when their insulin failed during clinical trials on patients in Toronto General Hospital - Barry has given them 'voices', their emotions expressed dramatically through 'speaking' to each other. Some of the episodes are imaginary, but 90% is factual.
