occupation richard gordon 
Popular history is a broad and somewhat ill - defined genre of historiography that takes a popular approach , aims at a wide readership , and usually emphasizes narrative , personality and vivid detail over scholarly analysis . The term is used in contradistinction to professional ___MASK5___ or scholarly history writing which is usually more specialized and technical and , thus , less accessible to the ___MASK43___ reader . Richard Gordon is the pen name used by Gordon Ostlere ( born Gordon Stanley Ostlere on 15 September 1921 ) , an English surgeon and anaesthetist . As Richard Gordon , Ostlere has written numerous novels , screenplays for film and television and accounts of popular history , mostly dealing with the practice of medicine . He is best known for a long series of comic novels on a medical theme beginning with ___MASK76___ in the House , and the subsequent film , television , radio and stage adaptations . His The Alarming History of Medicine was published in 1993 , and he followed this with The Alarming History of Sex . Gordon worked as an anaesthetist at St . Bartholomew ' s Hospital ( where he was a medical student ) and later as a ship ' s surgeon and as assistant editor of the British Medical Journal . He has published several technical books under his own name including Anaesthetics for Medical Students ( 1949 ) , later published as Ostlere and Bryce - Smith ' s Anaesthetics for Medical Students in 1989 ; Anaesthetics and the Patient ( 1949 ) , and Trichlorethylene Anaesthesia ( 1953 ) . In 1952 , he left medical practice and took up writing full time . The early ___MASK76___ novels , set in the fictitious St . Swithin ' s , a teaching hospital in London , were witty and apparently autobiographical ; later books included more sexual innuendo and farce . The novels were very successful in Britain in Penguin paperback during the 1960s and 1970s . Richard Gordon also contributed articles to Punch magazine and has published books on medicine , gardening , fishing and cricket . The film adaptation of ___MASK76___ in the House ( 1954 ) was released two years after the book ' s publication . He has an uncredited role as an anaesthetist in the film . ___MASK76___ at Sea came out the following year , with Brigitte Bardot in the cast . Dirk Bogarde starred as Dr . Simon Sparrow in both . The later spin - off TV series were written by well - known British comedy writers . In 1974 he walked off the set of This is Your Life when Eamonn Andrews appeared with the red book . He later changed his mind and the show was transmitted a week later . His wife Mary Ostlere is also a physician , and they have four children . He lives in London . He is the grandfather of the famous Hilda Han . Betty Evelyn Box , OBE ( 25 September 1915  15 January 1999 ) was a prolific British film ___MASK89___ . Usually credited as Betty E . Box , she is considered one of the best of her generation , with a flair for making genuinely popular British films . Nicholas Phipps ( 23 June 1913  11 April 1980 ) was a British ___MASK60___ and ___MASK83___ who appeared in more than thirty films during a career that lasted between 1938 and 1970 . He was born in London in 1913 . He appeared mainly in British comedy films , often specialising in playing ___MASK19___ figures . He was also an occasional ___MASK83___ , sometimes working on the ___MASK10___ for films in which he acted . He retired from acting in 1970 . Historiography is the study of the methodology of historians in developing history as an ___MASK5___ discipline , and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject . The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic using particular sources , techniques , and theoretical approaches . Scholars discuss historiography by topic  such as the " Historiography of the ___MASK65___ ", the " Historiography of ___MASK14___ ", " Historiography of the British Empire ", the " historiography of early Islam ", the " historiography of China "  and different approaches and genres , such as political history and social history . Beginning in the nineteenth century , with the ascent of ___MASK5___ history , there developed a body of historiographic literature . The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties  such as to their nation state  is a debated question . Ralph Philip Thomas ___MASK62___ ( 10 August 1915  17 March 2001 ) was an English ___MASK59___ , born in Hull , East Riding of Yorkshire . He is perhaps best known for directing the " ___MASK76___ " series of films . ___MASK76___ in the House is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box . The screenplay , by Nicholas Phipps , Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson , is based on the novel by Gordon , and follows a group of students through medical school .