Richard Smith Editor, BMJ

Doctors are largely invisible to the general public. People know the names of their own doctors, but few know the names of any of Britain's leading doctors. Perhaps for that reason the National Portrait Gallery has - until now - had relatively few portraits of British doctors. Now it has the collection included in this book. We at the BMJ saw an opportunity simultaneously to provide the gallery with a collection of photographs, mark the achievement of some outstanding doctors, and produce a beautiful book. We chose Nick Sinclair to take the photographs because a few of us had seen an earlier exhibition of his at the National Portrait Gallery. I have what I believe to be an infallible way of knowing when I am looking at outstanding pictures, be they paintings or photographs: for a short time they transform my view of the world. It is as if I am looking through somebody else's eyes. Not always a pleasant experience, it's a fascinating one. And it happened to me when I looked at Nick's earlier exhibition. Next we chose the doctors. We did this in a rapid, impromptu, subjective, and wholly idiosyncratic way. One guiding principle was that we chose older doctors. Some, perhaps many, of the doctors we have photographed would be included in any collection of leading doctors, but some may surprise. Finally, we asked Stephen Lock, my predecessor as editor of the BMJ and now a medical historian, and Chris Booth, a distinguished physician and medical historian, to write the words. We asked them to be brief and unpompous. They succeeded. London, December 1996 With head and hand and heart. An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery St. Martin's Place London WC2H 0HE tel: 0171 306 0055 Opening times: Monday to Saturday 1000 - 1800 hrs and Sun 1200 - 1800 hrs Book available from the BMJ Bookshop, £14.95 ISBN 0 7279 1177 5. Book design and artwork by Adrian Taylor All proceeds to Age Concern