In medicine, you are not just carrying out procedures, but rather you are helping real life people and it is so important to respect their wishes when working. Catch your breath is a poignant and also incredibly funny Medical Memoir about Ed’s career thus far as a Doctor, how he got into Anaesthesia and also his part at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ed has written and performed on BBC Radio 4, for shows "Now Wash Your Hands" and "Newsjack", and he has also written for the Guardian about the intersection between medicine and comedy.

The storytelling style is like a conversation with a longtime friend, making the book a light and enjoyable read despite the heavy subject matter.As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it, the hardback copy is beautiful as it looks like a green medical box! Nothing in their training could prepare them for the onslaught of the loss of life, the relentless waves of admissions, lack of governmental support and the terrible knowledge that there was little they could do! But the book isn’t a downer - it has enough humor and humility to balance out the genuine sadness brought on by something out of everyone’s control. I definitely did not dislike it, but I think because I work in the medical field and I worked through Covid I found it less enlightening and funny and more like reliving my experience of Covid, which was neither new or funny.

He gives us a glimpse of his life, and that of the other medical professionals, in the ICU as they helplessly watch patients die in spite of their best efforts. Funny , honest , at times brutal , but always a great insight to the running of the NHS and how the staff have to deal with whatever is put in front of them.I read this book in one sitting because it was simply brilliant, even when my Apple Watch told me it was time to move around I stood up and carried on reading because I didn’t want to put it down!

Hilariously funny, moving and truly insightful, it follows Ed's journey from bewildered medical student in Aberdeen to unflinching anaesthetist on the NHS frontline. No multiple choice exam can prepare one for the reality of dealing with people in crisis and not all good doctors have the right answers. From the 'Foreword - A Doctor's Note' I knew I was going to love this book because I felt like I was reading something by Adam Kay (and I have read and loved all of his books). The story takes us through Ed's training which had some side splittingly funny anecdotes, his rotations as a junior doctor though to Covid hitting.The second part, covering Ed Patrick's time during the first two waves of Covid, really make this book. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. This is a human, mature, yet humorous account of life as a junior medic, in perhaps the most testing of times.

Students thinking of studying medicine, medical students, and young doctors will also find this memoir engaging and insightful, and offer some perspective on their future plans. Yet still they got up and carried on, what other choice did they have and they found humour and a connection with humanity wherever they could.I didn’t expect that being an anaesthetist in a pandemic would leave me outside my front door naked, or indeed that I’d be telling this story to readers.