This is Going to Hurt

Adam Kay Press Reviews

'Kay intersperses horror stories from the NHS front line with blissfully brilliant wordplay' - Daily Mail

'Brilliant' - Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

'A heartening, laugh-out-loud confessional on the indignities and quiet joys of being a junior doctor . . . Anchoring the wisecracks is Kay's heartfelt respect for Britain's junior doctors and the ignoble realities of a noble profession. At a time of anxiety over the future of the NHS, Kay's warts-and-all account will not only bring plenty of laughs but also delivers a moving report from the NHS's embattled frontline' - Financial Times

'Stayed up half the night laughing out loud over painfully smart, honest doctor diaries' - Emma Donoghue, author of Room Things

'I have done while reading this book: laughed aloud (too many times to count), read a passage to a stranger on a train (this was perhaps inadvisable but could not be helped), been consistently bowled over by the detail of Dr Kay's sharp prose & remarkably observant journey in a job so many of us have no real understanding of. It's an important book, a boots-on-the-ground memoir true to its title-but it's a good hurt I was left with upon turning the last page, the kind that resonates with empathy and consequence.' - Ryan Gattis, author of Safe and All Involved

'An urgent, devastating yet truly funny account of life at the coalface of the NHS. This Is Going to Hurt had me laughing, crying and open-mouthed - in horror and in awe - by turn of page' - Lisa Owens, author of Not Working

'This made me laugh out loud and cry in equal measures. Adam's book weaves in and out of his patients
lives and in so doing he tells, in a better narrative than I have ever seen before, of the pain and joy of working so close to despair, disease and death. It 's a quite brilliant book and will soothe the sorrows of many junior (and senior) doctors and remind us all why we entered this wonderful profession. A must read for patients too - lifting the bonnet on the working life of your jobbing hospital doctor' - Prof Clare Gerada MBE, past chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners

'Hilarious from the first page - very, very funny. I loved it' - Kit Wharton, author of Emergency Admissions

'Hilarious and heartbreaking . . . I howled, yelped and occasionally choked with laughter . . . It's an invigorating addition to the vogue for medical memoirs. I like to think of it sitting on a shelf next to Henry Marsh, Atul Gawande and Paul Kalanithi, turning the air bluer and bluer. It has something of all those writers, but with an added dash of a profane Adrian Mole . . . This book may hurt, but in an important and necessary way -- Cathy Rentzenbrink' - The Times 

'I'd prescribe this book to anyone and everyone. It's laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly sad and gives you the lowdown on what it's like to be holding it together while serving on the front line of our beloved but beleaguered NHS. It's wonderful' - Jonathan Ross