Margery Blackie’s singular style has been preserved in this collection of teachings and writings, which span her whole career. Her deep understanding of the individual remedy and her vivid descriptions of the constitutional types of patients – Calc carb patient ‘has very little stuffing’ or Arsenicum patients are definitively ‘on the spot’ people – contributed to her international reputation.

This book sets before the reader the enthusiasm, learning and deep clinical understanding of one of the foremost homoeopaths of our time. Classical Homoeopathy draws into one volume Dr Blackie’s teaching over the whole span of her career. The first part describes the thinking behind homoeopathy and the principles on which the successful homoeopathic prescription is based, with its recognition of the sick person as a body, mind and spirit relationship, bound inseparably as one. The major constitutional remedies are then studied in detail, either individually or differentiated within groups of related remedies. This is followed by the symptomatic treatment of illness or disability, analysing each of the remedies that may be of value, and distinguishing the particular circumstances in which one remedy is likely to be indicated in preference to another. Next there is a compact Materia Medica, summarising the essential characteristics of one hundred and eleven major remedies. The final part comprises a clinical repertory, relating symptoms to remedies already discussed in the book, and an index of remedies.

Margery Blackie qualified in medicine in 1923 at the London School of Medicine for Women and in the following year joined the staff of the London Homoeopathic Hospital. She became Honorary Consultant Physician to that hospital in 1966, combining this with a busy homoeopathic general practice in London. She was appointed Physician to H.M. The Queen in 1968 and was admitted to the Royal Victorian Order in the rank of Commander in 1979. She died in 1981. Dr Elliott and Dr Johnson studied under Dr Blackie and subsequently worked closely with her.