If you’re a fan of memoirs in general but know nothing about Adam Kay, this is still a great starting point and you can always go back to his other stuff later for a bit of a lighter pick me up. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book and was very interested in his reflections on how his upbringing and medical training had affected his ability to open up and face things in his life, particularly his journey surrounding his sexuality. More trauma followed when his medical career was on the wane and he decided to cheat on his wife – he describes the decision as a boil that needed lancing – when the opportunity arose to perform at a medical conference in New Zealand.

Adam Kay: Undoctored – This is Going to Hurt More Tickets Adam Kay: Undoctored – This is Going to Hurt More Tickets

Undoctored is Adam Kay’s funniest and most moving book yet – an astonishing portrait of a life in and out of medicine, from one of Britain’s finest storytellers, and is now coming to the West End stage in an extraordinary new show. The main problem for that character’s health isn’t the long-term implications of the cigarette, it’s the short-term implications of an explosion from the oxygen tank! It’s my biggest extravagance – and one of the few things I have in my personal mental health toolkit.In his most honest and incisive book yet, he reflects on what's happened since hanging up his scrubs and examines a life inextricably bound up with medicine. At Edinburgh, we are allocated a tutor and rotate in a circle taking a history from an actor patient. Medicine insists that you have all these extracurricular interests and for me, that was mostly music and I really loved music. It's difficult to review this because it wasn't bad, just that Kay has set himself up to be "the funny guy" and a lot of unfunny things happened to him that are uncomfortable to unpack and were unexpected.

Undoctored by Adam Kay | Waterstones Undoctored by Adam Kay | Waterstones

I was super excited to dive into this book because This Is Going to Hurt remains one of my favourite non fiction books of all time. The thing that I thought as soon as I started watching the rushes come together, and then a bunch of doctors have said to me, is I can’t believe they’re not actually doctors, midwives and nurses, because they just embodied it so well. He also reveals that they lost a child, which they discovered during an ultrasound scan in the hospital where he worked. He is a low-key performer, unflashily standing behind a lectern shaped like a giant pill bottle, but his writing is taut and concise.This is a series of Kay’s stories after he left medicine with multiple flashbacks to his life as a medical student and resident and even a specialist.

Undoctored by Adam Kay | Waterstones

If you’re looking for a book (like I initially was, I think) that is an extension and follow up to his first book, that feels very much more of the same with hilarious and heartbreaking anecdotes from the NHS you may be left disappointed here.He is a columnist for the Sunday Times and a proud patron of The Lullaby Trust and The Laura Hyde Foundation. In the back of my books, I have a list of credits for all the people involved, and there’s two full pages! Personally I know people who are doctors (and honestly are the most interesting people I know,) but you can forget about the high stakes that come with their line of work and the impact it can have on their mental and physical health.