cover image Patient Has the Floor

Patient Has the Floor

Alistair Cooke. Alfred A. Knopf, $16.95 (204pp) ISBN 978-0-394-50365-3

Cooke is among the most familiar and admired of Englishmen living in America. Host of PBS-TV's Masterpiece Theatre, he contributes to other TV and radio shows, writes bestsellers (Alistair Cooke's America, etc.) and charms audiences as a guest speaker. This book contains 14 essays, addresses delivered before professional groups in the U.S. and England. Although respectful and even benign, Cooke's remarks can be scalpel sharp as he advises doctors (particularly psychiatrists) to avoid medical mumbo-jumbo and speak plainly to patients. But physicians aren't the only arcane addicts that the gentle, witty proselytizer urges to reform. The collection presents wordy obfuscations intoned by politicians, educators, writers, actors: would-be ""communicators'' in several fields. Cooke is always entertaining and provocative. His finale is a salute to both his native and adopted lands, ``The American in England: Emerson to S. J. Perelman.'' Franklin Library First Edition selection. (May 27)