The Psychiatric Report: Principles and Practice of Forensic Writing. Edited by Alec Buchanan & Michael A. Norko, Cambridge University Press, 2011, £36.99, pb, 300 pp. ISBN: 9780521131841

Formerly Consultant Psychiatrist, South Beds at Fairfield Hospital and Luton & Dunstable Hospital

N. D. G. Leslie was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1928. He was the second in a family of six children. After graduating from the University of Ceylon, Colombo - he obtained the MB BS in 1953 - he worked in various government hospitals in Sri Lanka for 5 years and for 10 years in general practice, before moving in 1968 to the UK to train in psychiatry. He came to love the subject and decided to pursue a career in the field. He obtained the DPM (1971) and went on to get the MRCPsych in 1972. He spent some of the happiest years of his life training at the former Fairfield Psychiatric Hospital in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, where, in 1980, he was appointed to the post of Consultant Psychiatrist, South Beds. After retirement he also worked part-time as a locum consultant psychiatrist at Stevenage Lister Hospital, before fully retiring at the age of 70.

He studied further and obtained qualifications in homeopathy and hypnosis. He also had a life-long interest in religion, philosophy and spiritual matters, dedicating himself to developing his Buddhist faith following retirement. A keen gardener, he used to maintain the grounds of the Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Centre.

A progressive neurological disorder of uncertain aetiology developed just before his retirement. He bore his suffering and worsening peripheral neuropathy with great fortitude and dignity until his death on 1 May 2012. He is survived by his wife Sheila and their three children.