Health issues, the NHS and patient care frequently hit the news headlines with the stories relevant to us all in some way or form. Turn the clock back a century and things would be so different.

Roger Penn from Whitland (pictured), the son of the late Dr George Penn, tells many a fascinating tale in Dolycwrt:The Days of a Country Doctor's Surgery. The new book, published by Gomer Press, recounts a remarkable 100-year period in life, medicine, patient care, community events and world affairs, as experienced by the medical fortress Dolycwrt Surgery, between 1898 - 1998.

"I always knew that Dolycwrt had a fascinating history as well as a story to tell", says Roger. "When my late father died, he was a doctor at Dolycwrt for 42 years, I vowed that I would write the story at the first opportunity. When I retired in January 2010, I started in earnest."

It is fitting that the book launch will be held at Dolycwrt garden today (Friday) at 3 o'clock, with a further celebration and tea at the Memorial Hall, Whitland.

Through the 'eyes' of Dolycwrt Surgery, the book provides an insight into an incredible transition in life from the days of its first doctor - who travelled around this vast country practice on a horse and cart - to the thoroughly modern era of purpose-built health centres.

The area of the Dolycwrt practice included the villages of Crymych, Tavernspite, Login, Llanglydwen, Clunderwen, Efailwen, Llanboidy, and the towns of Narberth, St. Clears, Carmarthen and, of course, Whitland. It is not surprising, therefore, that Dolycwrt and its endearing doctors touched the lives of so many communities and people in West Wales.

The book is a story of mutual love and respect between patients and their doctors in a world and a time that was, somehow, very different to today.

Pubished by Gomer Press, Dolycwrt: The Days of a Country Doctor's Surgery is priced £12.99.

• Author Roger Penn lives in Dolycwrt, Whitland, with his wife, Celeste. A native of Whitland, he attended the local primary and grammar schools before joining Lloyd's Bank Limited in 1976. He is a former Welsh Rugby Union referee and has an interest in local history.

Dolycwrt was the subject of an award-winning BBC documentary which documented a community campaign to save the surgery from closure in 1998.