David Purdie was born privately and educated publicly. He grew up on the west coast of Scotland at Prestwick in Ayrshire, being educated at Ayr Academy and on the golf links of Prestwick St. Nicholas.
He then went on to Glasgow University where he graduated in Medicine learning the art and craft of public speaking in the University Union Debating Hall under such masters of the art as John Smith (later to lead the Labour Party) Sir Menzies Campbell and the late Donald Dewar.
He was latterly Consultant to the Edinburgh Osteoporosis Centre which specialises in the detection and management of this brittle bone disease and remains an adviser to the Dept. of Health and the Ministry of Defence.
Outside medicine, he writes for The Sunday Times and The Scotsman on medical and literary matters and is a Parliamentary speech adviser to several members of the House of Commons.
His reputation as a speaker is attested by the engagements below and by the journalist Lewine Mair who described him in the Daily Telegraph as "Arguably our best after-dinner speaker of this moment." Professor Purdie is equally at home at a charity function, a Livery Dinner or a business occasion with his blend of acute observation and hilarious anecdote which is the key to his style, allied always to the Golden Rule of speaking - leave them wanting more!
