COVER

Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay

Summary:

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat . . . but 1.4 million NHS staff are heading off to work. In this perfect present for anyone who has ever set foot in a hospital, Adam Kay delves back into his diaries for a hilarious, horrifying and sometimes heartbreaking peek behind the blue curtain at Christmastime.

Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.

My Review:

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay was huge success and is still selling very well. Adam returns with a festive book Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas (Picador). This is a book that will find its way into many a Christmas stocking this year and it is both hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time.

AUTHOR

There was many laughs in Adam Kay’s first book but may be because this is a look at the life on the NHS wards at Christmastime I actually found this to be more hilarious.

I mean what on earth are people doing at Christmas to land themselves in hospital I mean what are Candy Canes for exactly? To eat you cry, just try telling that to some out there. (I will leave this to your imagination). Adam really does know how to reach out to people and make them laugh and there are barrel loads of laughs throughout.

The NHS staff across the country all year deserve so much praise for being there at all hours of the day and night to look after us when we need their help. But so much more during the festive period when they sacrifice so much to care for those of us who need care and attention. I was one of those in my childhood that spent Christmas in hospital. I have never forgotten the nurses and doctors of that hospital. Being ill or having accidents does not stop just because it is Christmas.

There are so many hilarious stories that Adam shares from his diaries of his time in an NHS hospital during the festive period. But also at the same time there are some stories that will make you stop and think and are rather sad and poignant.

There is also the message about how dangerously underfunded the NHS has become to the point of the medical staff working long hours without a break or sleep. Our wonderful NHS needs all our support all year round it is not a political football to be played with at election time. It needs real-time investment and that includes in nurses and doctors.

If you do want a seriously good laugh after you have over eaten and drunk too much, then my prescription is Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay. I promise it is a far more entertaining than Christmas Day TV.

One last thought. If you have been treated in hospital this past year, why not send a card to the hospital or some chocolates to the doctors and nurses that treated you to give them some Christmas cheer on the big day.

160 Pages.

Twas The Nightshift before Christmas by Adam Kay is published by Picador and published on 17^th October 2019 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

This is Going to Hurt – Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

Anyone who uses the NHS marvels at the incredible work of the nurses and doctors who look after us, but what is it really like from the point of view of a junior doctor. Along comes Adam Kay with his laugh out loud This is Going to Hurt (Picador) that was released in early September. In recent weeks Adam has won the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Book of the Year, the Books Are My Bag Readers’ Choice Award and also Winner of Blackwell’s Debut Book of the Year. Not a bad return for a debut about a junior doctor. Actually it is just brilliant in every respect.

There were times when I was reading this that I was laughing so much I had tears in my eyes not sure what my fellow passengers must have thought on my daily commute to and from work. But at the same time I had tears for very different reasons. Just the pure emotion and also heartbreaking. These are the diaries of Adam Kay when he was a junior doctor for six years.

I said to one of my bookish friends on Twitter that I was going to send a copy to Jeremy Hunt (Health Secretary), well I can now reveal here that I actually did just that, whether the book actually reached him personally is another matter. But I carried out my threat as I believe he and other government ministers should read this outstanding and brilliant book.

Here are his diary entries from 2004 to 2010 after which he gave up his job suddenly and very sadly. Now he writes and my goodness does he write. Though Kay is extremely funny in his writing there is a very serious side to this book and he uses it to send a message to those in power and how the NHS is on the verge of collapse despite those in government denying this for their own agenda.

There is one part that has stayed with me and it is when Adam has just ended yet another very long shift on the wards and is so exhausted that he falls asleep in his car. He has not left the car park at the hospital. He is woken up by the registrar on Christmas Day asking why he is late for his next shift. Then he falls asleep at various points. If this does not get a message across as to just how hard these doctors and nurses are working and to the point of sheer mental and physical exhaustion, then nothing will. These dedicated people are not just human they are super human. They are there to put us back together when things go wrong for whatever reason.

I am not one for watching these medical dramas on TV as I have seen them working at first hand on my over recent years and to me each and every one is a hero and should treated as such.

If you read one book before the end of this year, please make it This is Going to Hurt I promise you will fall over laughing it will make you cry laughing and it will make you angry at the way the NHS is being managed. It is one of my 15 books of 2017. You will not be disappointed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

288 Pages.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay is published by Picador and was published on 7^th September 2017 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and all good bookshops.