Alan Bleakley is Emeritus Professor of Medical Education and Medical Humanities at Plymouth University Peninsula School of Medicine, UK. He is an international figure in medical education and the medical humanities, author of more than 80 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, and author/co-author/editor of 15 books. His early academic background was in zoology, and then psychology and cultural studies. He trained as a psychotherapist and had a clinical practice alongside his academic work in medical education, the latter including a number of significant curriculum innovations. In particular, he introduced the first core, integrated, and assessed medical humanities program in any medical school in establishing the Peninsula Medical School, UK, in 2002. He is a widely published poet, and a keen surfer (since 1964). He lives in the far west of the UK in Cornwall, overlooking the Atlantic, with his wife Sue, a visual artist, surrounded by a further two generations of family.