“…Both of them must have been disappointed by the lack of interest displayed by their colleagues. When Anaesthesia decided to reprint eleven ‘classic’ papers in 1995 to celebrate 50 years of publication, Dr Murphy’s was not one of them, which provoked a squeak of disappointment from some of those involved in fibreoptic education [16]. It has taken a long time for the significance of Dr Murphy’s idea to be appreciated, but more than 40 years after publication, he and the Journal can be proud of an important contribution to anaesthesia.…”