My favourite place to write is in bed, right at the top of our house in Camberwell.  Looking out of the window, I can see the furthermost corner of the estate that once belonged to a man I fondly think of as my neighbour, although he lived here over two hundred years ago.  I’m often reminded of Dr Lettsom when I’m up the road working on our family allotment.  It’s just where his pleasure garden used to be, part of what is now a community garden which still bears his name.

I kept running into Dr Lettsom in the course of my research into eighteenth-century medicine for my book DOCTOR OF LOVE, always with great pleasure.  Eventually I  put together some of what I’d found out for the website of my children’s primary school…but sadly, it was not backed up, so only some of the text has been preserved, which you’ll find here.  I no longer have access to the images in the original version.  But as you’ll see, Dog Kennel Hill pupils have more than one reason to be interested in Dr Lettsom.