ABOUT GREG
Greg has worked as a general practitioner in multi-cultural South Auckland for forty years, and as a medical educator for most of that time. Before that he worked for three years in a remote hospital in Nepal, with primary responsibility for obstetrics and paediatrics. He has recently retired to live with Marion at Sandspit near Warkworth, and is now able to devote more time to writing.
His life-long love of poetry and fiction led him first to start writing short stories, inspired by glimpses of the extraordinary lives of the people he encounters in his medical work. In 2020 these came together in the publication of Biopsies. All the characters appearing in these stories are fictional, however, and do not represent actual patients, past or present.
Greg was interviewed on RNZ's Nine to Noon about the writing of Biopsies, and being a GP in South Auckland. The link to that interview is the black box below.
His first book of poems, Shrapnel, contains warm and accessible personal reflections on themes ranging from medical practice to family life, travel and time-wrought transitions. He has also had poems published in Landfall (The Children), Shot Glass (Blow), and a fine line (two haiku).
A series of articles on poetry and medicine appeared in New Zealand Doctor, and these essays can be accessed via the Poetry tab at the top of this page.
What Was I Thinking? - a doctor's personal scrapbook, was published in 2025. In it he reflects on early formative experiences, taking a young family to live and work in Nepal, and a long GP career in South Auckland. In January 2026 Greg was interviewed on Nine to Noon about this book.