Professor Alex Anstey
Introduction to Under The Skin by Alex Anstey
I was born in Westerham Kent, delivered at home by my father Richard as the midwife failed to make it. We lived in the last house on Hosey Hill, just one mile from Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill. My mother Denyse was South African and French; born in South Africa to a French family. She had arrived in the UK in her early 20s with little money, a South African accent and a love of classical music. Richard wasn’t bothered about accents, having grown up in a family with a cook, a butler and an assumption that one went to Eton (as his father had done); it put him off posh accents for life. He too was passionate about classical music.
I was the third of four children; there was also a large extended family with numerous uncles, aunts and cousins. Our home was a happy but noisy place, with Richard often using his hi-fi to drown out the shouts and screams of the children. My parents were naturists too; all very embarrassing when I had friends to stay. At the age of 13, my parents announced that I would be going to school at Eton. This seemed like a random idea, as I was completely unprepared for schooling of this type. The school were clearly impressed by my common entrance exam papers where I stated that I was applying to Eaten Collage (spelling was never a strong point). I survived Eton, but was determined to take a career path with as few Old Etonians as possible: medicine beckoned. I scraped into Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in London.
Now a dermatologist at The Royal United Hospitals in Bath, I started working for the NHS in 1983, a consultant dermatologist since 1994. In 2000 I led the NHS team that won the “UK Dermatology Team of the Year”. I was appointed as Honorary Professor of Dermatology at Cardiff University in 2005, Advisory Professor of Dermatology to Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China in 2009 and Honorary Professor at Bangor University in 2021. As editor of the British Journal of Dermatology from 2013-2019, I led an overhaul of the journal which rose in the international rankings under my stewardship. Medical education has always been more than an interest for me; I am a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators. “Under the Skin: A Dermatologist’s Fight to Save the NHS” is my first book.
I have travelled widely, including back-packing from New York to Rio de Janeiro in 1978, then Nairobi to Cape Town, via Kampala in 1980. I spent a three-month sabbatical from the NHS at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town in 2005. I enjoy live music and saw Carole King in 1972, Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1975, The Who in 1976, David Bowie in 1977 and 1983, Miles Davies in 1981, Talking Heads in 1983 and Prince in 1985 and 2008 (and many more). I attend Glyndebourne Opera most years, and am a friend of Welsh National Opera and The Bayreuth Festival in Bavaria. My football team Crystal Palace are consistent: each new season starts with hope and ends with disappointment.
My wife Sarah and I live in Bath. When not working I enjoy gardening, reading, walking and listening to music. We have two grown-up children, Rebecca and Ben, and a small dog called Moli.
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Alex Anstey 