About the Author

Richard Alan John Asher, FRCP was an eminent British endocrinologist and haematologist. As the senior physician responsible for the mental observation ward at the Central Middlesex Hospital he described and named Munchausen syndrome in a 1951 article in The Lancet. He has three children, Peter Asher (Peter & Gordon pop duo and record producer) Jane Asher (film and TV actress and novelist) and Clare Asher (radio actress).