DR. ROBERT BUCKMAN lives in Toronto, Canada, where he is a medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

He qualified as a physician from Cambridge University in 1972, and completed his training in medical oncology at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London including laboratory research leading to a Ph.D. He emigrated to Toronto in 1985.

He has written many articles on various aspects of medicine and oncology, concentrating in the last fifteen years on doctor-patient communication and breaking bad news. He designed and teaches an undergraduate course in breaking bad news which was given the University of Toronto Aikins Teaching Award in 1989.

For the last twenty years he has also had a second career in communication and broadcasting, presenting television science-and-medicine programmes in Britain and then Canada. His series Magic or Medicine? won him a Gemini award (the Canadian TV Industry equivalent of an Emmy. His latest series Human Wildlife was broadcast on the Discovery Channel and won two awards at the Chicago Television festival in 2003.

He has written fourteen books including I Don’t Know What To Say - How To Help And Support Someone Who Is Dying (1988) a guide for friends and family, Magic or Medicine? an investigation into complementary medicine and How To Break Bad News a medical textbook for physicians and healthcare professionals and What You Really Need To Know About Cancer, a comprehensive guide for patients and their families, which has been published in Britain, Canada, the United States (in collaboration with the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center).

Together with Dr Walter Baile, head of Psychiatry at the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center, he completed two sets of CD-ROMs (one in general medicine, one in cancer care) for healthcare professionals giving a comprehensive practical guide to communication skills - in particular a protocol for breaking bad news. The same group later produced a video On Being An Oncologist about the personal burdens and rewards of being a cancer physician, presented by the film actor William Hurt and the star of Wit Megan Cole. They are currently preparing a series of workshops on communication for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In 1994 he was made Canadian Humanist of the year, and in 2003 received the Fleming medal of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science. He is an adjunct Professor at the M.D.Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas.

He is married to a gorgeous and tolerant Canadian physician who believed him when he said he had an immense personal fortune and a serious heart condition. He is currently trying to acquire either one or the other.