Adam Kay's secret diary from his time as a junior doctor This is Going to Hurt was the publishing phenomenon of the century. It has been read by millions, translated into 37 languages, and adapted into a major BBC television series. But that was only part of the story. An insight to the authors life during and after being a doctor. Found myself giggling at some of the things wittily mentioned! Although I found it took a dark turn at the “worst gig” chapter! It’s an uncomfortable read although I understand why it’s there. So I told them the truth: the hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, the conditions are terrible; you’re underappreciated, unsupported, disrespected and frequently physically endangered. But there’s no better job in the world.” And despite all the humor and funny moments there is a criticism at the job and the medical system which I believe is universal and not confined to the UK. I did not know Kay was queer and another thing that made me a bit confused was how he talked a lot about being in a tight spot with money despite his books having sold million of copies -to be fair most of it was prior to him becoming very successful as an author-

I adore Adam Kay, and have read all of his books - well listened to them on audio. I even got my Dad into them too. Kay is just so funny. You hang on his every word, and he has the ability to make you laugh as well as cry.Sometimes it felt like a PR stunt, yet some of the stuff he discussed was brutal and honest, and heartbreaking and obviously things he struggled to share. Time to vote on our next Non-fiction book. This book will be open from December 2nd 2019 to Feb 29, 2020. Adam Kay is witty and has a dry sense of humour that some people will love or hate. I personally enjoyed Undoctored for his charismatic uptake on difficult times that you’d never expect anyone to take the time to flesh out into writing. He does give us an insight to his life, his new relationship and how he is truly coping with his new lease of life. I quite appreciated Kay’s frankness- there is no sugar coating by all means. He puts it plain and simple and issues us with stark warnings about the process of diving into a new career path when the other one mentally and physically depleted him. It opens with a nightmare: his recurring nightmare of a baby he cannot save. But that is only the first of his agonies. His prat falling is vast in its scope, the self-destruction of an artist. When secondary school came around, I became a wide-eyed, wide-beaked gosling, force-fed the corn that would eventually lead to its starring role in a foie gras starter. My evenings, weekends and holidays were stuffed with exam revision, interview practice, work experience and med-school-mandated extra-curricular activities. There definitely wasn't any time for spare socialising. [...] Sometimes, the loneliest feelings of all don't come from total isolation but from being on the edge of the cword, watching the rest of the world live its life, as if it's happening on television and not three feet away from you in the canteen. But I told myself that maybe this was just what adulthood was like sometimes.

Behind Kay’s intensely critical voice – the one I objected to in This Is Going to Hurt, when it faced his female patients – the voice that whirrs on, presumably full time in his head, is his mother’s. Perhaps it is artistic licence, perhaps exaggeration, but he presents his mother as intensely critical, oblivious to his pain. Though medicine broke him, she yearned for him to return to it, as if she could not hear. He needed a microphone.I couldn't deny that doors had been opened for me but I'd definitely put in the work once I'd walked through them. The ceaseless studying, the endless after-school classes, the timetable of extra-curricular activities that would give any Olympic athlete a nervo. I really enjoyed Adam Kay’s first two books - This Is Going To Hurt & Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas. However, Undoctored fell short of expectations and didn’t have the same level of humor as Adam’s previous work.

THIS IS GOING TO HURT was the bestselling non-fiction book of the century – a frank, funny and furious look at the brutal realities of life in the NHS. I should say that given I'm a medic, this review will most likely be very medicine-centred. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading all the other bits, just that I have something more tangible to say about medicine. You know us medics, it's always about medicine. He didn’t want to be a doctor, but he became one. He didn’t want to be a straight married man, but he became one: he married a woman. He plotted adultery – he took a comedy gig in New Zealand so he could go to a gay sauna – and was raped there. He developed bulimia after a fellow doctor – a psychiatrist no less – called him “a big lad” when they slept together. Granted, Undoctored is a memoir that would naturally include details about his personal life after leaving the NHS (British Healthcare system). But, in my opinion, there were too many occasions where he included tidbits of information that would be better left unsaid. Undoctored was every bit as hilarious as I expected it to be, if not more given the subject matter. It certainly helped that, rather than random Harry Potter characters, everyone was named after MCU characters. It details Adam's (yes, first name basis) life after leaving medicine including:Now I understand him better, I understand his cruelty. He never extended kindness to himself. This book is breathtakingly sad, and I suspect that will anger him, too. I read Adam’s previous two books: The first as a medical student on the verge of graduation, the second as a medical intern and now I am reading his third book as a resident and it certainly hit closest to home. I remember trying to get help for loads of mental health stuff through the medical school. To be fair, they are doing a lot more than your average med school but it was excruciating when the lady who was "screening" me asked whether I was exercising and socialising and eating and sleeping well. I was so ready to blow up in her face, "No shit those things help, that's why I've been doing them and that's the reason I'm seeking help--because they're not working!" And even people close to me succumb to comments like, "Why don't you just stop counting?" Gee, I wish I had thought of that. I think there's been some improvement in the attitude towards medics having mental illnesses. That doesn't mean we don't still have a long way to go. I think the chapter about Adam's conference presentation is a great example of this. He essentially bared his soul to a room full of doctors about why training needed to change and become more supportive. He was invalidated by the president of the Royal College. I understand that medicine is a demanding job. However, is it so much to ask to have a good life? I remember in my first year when I expressed concerns about not having a work-life balance to an OBGYN, she laughed me right out of the room and told me I shouldn't have applied for medicine if I expected that, that I had made the wrong choice and it wasn't too late to switch. That was probably one of the most disheartening talks I ever received from a doctor. Coming out to his family (I was confused about this because I thought he had already come out and that H, his partner from This Is Going to Hurt was a man, I think I probably got the TV show mixed up) Stand-up is both diagnosis of pain and cure: the fury and the laughter that soothes it. I’m not surprised he wanted to bring babies into the world: he is all in pieces. I now see Kay’s attempt at medicine as a great act of transference: to heal others at the expense of himself; to birth others who would be happier than himself, in a kind of thwarted renewal.