A brilliant book to kick off the list, as it’s so universally appealing! We think everyone will enjoy it, you will laugh and cry in equal measure
It is a truly laudable book, hilarious, moving and caustic. If you’ve been disappointed by the NHS, it will give you a way to contextualise your feeling. If you’re a fan of our (for now) free, universal healthcare you will find much to bolster your belief. And if you can hardly believe Nye Bevan’s creation has survived... you’ll find plenty to explain how we got here. It also happens to contain the best footnotes I’ve ever come across – packed with information, medical and otherwise, and dripping with sardonic wit.
If you read one book this year, make it Adam Kay’s hilarious, horrifying, heartbreaking insight into the life of a junior doctor...he extremely squeamish or extremely prudish might want to tread carefully but still shouldn’t miss this eye-opening and brutally funny insight into the appalling pressure upon the NHS. What a terrible loss Adam Kay is to the medical profession. But what a tremendous gain for your bookshelf.
Reading this book is going to hurt, but mainly from holding your sides with the laughter it induces...But the suffering, loss and sorrow that went with the job are not ignored, or the shortcomings of the system – ridiculous hours and poor pay – that cause so many good doctors to leave.
As Kay’s diary of his time as a junior doctor so eloquently shows, medics are used to tragedy. But this awful experience scarred him.... his frank and excruciatingly funny book, inspired by the 2016 junior doctors’ dispute, is also a moving tribute to the people without whom the NHS couldn’t function.
