bedside manner, and a silky talent for finding just the right words to soothe.

And, of course, some would argue the Hon. Quinton Lancelot Edness is already a doctor of sorts.

A general practitioner, perhaps, of the art of comforting a Country wracked by the pain of recession.

Doctor or otherwise, Bermuda's Health and Social Services Minister is certainly, from his grey hair to his well polished shoes, a consummate politician.

It was hardly a surprise, therefore, when his name topped the roll call of Bermudians this time round in the Queen's New Year's Honours List.

The 61-year-old bespectacled member for Warwick West, who first became an MP in 1968, was appointed a CBE.

Against the MP and JP already after his name, it is likely to be an honour he will wear with pride.

For the former pupil of Sandys Primary and Berkeley Institute gives the impression of being very conscious of his standing in the community.

A familiar face on TV, he has the air of someone who relishes power -- and the limelight.

Tall, urbane, articulate, and a touch avuncular, he may be. Not to mention charming.

But underneath the polished exterior, one suspects there lurks something harder. A certain ruthlessness, even.

Born on April 2, 1931, the young Quinton's Bermudian education was mixed with a spell at Bloor Collegiate in Toronto.

In 1951, he joined the Bermuda Broadcasting Company as a trainee announcer, and nine years later became sales manager.

His untroubled rise in the company continued until 1984, when he resigned as managing director of radio and TV.

Of course, by that time the golf-loving Mr. Edness, a married father-of-one, was a political veteran, with a reputation as a smooth-talking troubleshooter.

His curriculum vitae, 1972-78, included heading three ministries: Health and Social Services; Marine and Air; and Works, Agriculture and Fisheries.

And in 1978 he became the first Cabinet Minister to hold the new portfolio of Community Affairs.

In 1988, after a Cabinet reshuffle, he took on his current portfolio, to which he was reappointed following the 1989 general election.

As a pilot on politically choppy waters, he appears to have a disarmingly firm grasp on the tiller. Something, no doubt, which has come in handy while steering several major Acts through Parliament.

These include the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1972; the Bermuda Housing Act 1980; Human Rights Act 1981; the Public Works Act, 1984; the Waste and Litter Act 1987; and the Housing Assistance Programme 1988.

More recently the well-travelled Mr. Edness, also credited with helping to found Agape House, had to use all his skills to weather a storm over Bermuda's prison system.

The break-out from Casemates of convicted murderer Troy Shorter left him exposed to a security outcry from the PLP and the community.

Amid calls for his resignation, he did what comes second nature -- pouring much oil on troubled waters.

And slowly, but surely, the political focus switched from him to the inevitable inquiry.

For any politician the hurly burly of Parliament must become tiresome at times.

Mr. Edness, however, who holds several directorships, has managed to find an enviable escape route.

Regularly, it seems, his career has taken him across the water.

As Bermuda's overseas representative at the Caribbean Health Ministers Conference he found a jet-set lifestyle -- visiting Barbados, Guyana, Dominica, and the Bahamas.

And in 1979 he flew off to New Zealand for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Somehow, one suspects he always enjoys these overseas jaunts to the full.

The Hon. Quinton Edness, MP, JP and now CBE.