TWAS THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

In honour of friends Ruth, Joy, Debbie, Angie, Irene and  fellow blogger, Lainy @ So Many Book, So Little Time all of whom work for the NHS.

In honour of the GPs, community nurses, paramedics, doctors, nurses, health care assistants, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech and language therapists, the pharmacists, phlebotomists, porters and house keeping all of whom have taken such good care of myself and Mr T over the years. 

With thanks to all of the NHS staff who give their all; their time with loved ones in order that they may care for us and our loved ones, it is with sorrow that I remember those who lost their lives during the Covid pandemic. 

TWAS THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by ADAM KAY.

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.

Twas The Nightshift before Christmas is a love letter to all thoser who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubels from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year. {Back Cover Blurb} 

ABOUT TWAS THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS ...

GENRE: Non Fiction, Medical, Humour

SERIES: Standalone though is one of several books of the same theme

NUMBER OF PAGES: 148

PUBLISHER: Picador 

Christmas is this pine-scented, tinsel-strewn timeout where, like it or not, everything just ... stops. {First Sentence, Introduction}

MY THOUGHTS ... Funny? Yes ... though that's a somewhat hesitant yes on my part.

Laugh out loud in parts but alas not nearly as funny as I had hoped it would be; for the main part I only managed a somewhat knowing smile ... after all most of the nurses I know can relate far more funny/gross/shocking tales/stories of objects inserted in various bodily orifices {all told with far less swearing}. 

Not that Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas is comprised wholly of funny tales of objects inserted in various bodily orifices, there are also some sad yet still kind of funny entries such as the time the author set off his novelty Christmas tie whilst breaking the worst possible new kind of news to a family {luckily they saw the funny side of it} and then of course there's the political; the insights into life as a junior doctor, the long hours traded for family/social life, that ...

There's no reserve service, no fleet of Green Goddesses to give the healthcare professions a bit of time off. Instead 1.4 million NHS employees divvy up the shifts and put in absurdly unsociable hours to ensure the rest of us make it through to the New Year in one piece. {Introduction, Pg 4}

A book I essentially enjoyed BUT, call me cynical, left feeling a bit disappointed ...

Feeling as if it had been cobbled together for the Christmas market. Retailing at £10.00 for the hard back copy, at 142ish pages, shorter to say nothing of smaller {its A5 in size} than I'd have liked; take out all the numerous footnotes {many of them quite lengthy}, the blank pages, the pages with nothing but a basic ink illustration or a few lines of text, the two pages of acknowledgements and the four 'editorial' pages, this was an overly expensive read for what it was.

ABOUT ADAM KAY ... Adam Kay is an award-winning comedian and writer. He previously worked for many years as a junior doctor. His first book "This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" was a Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year and has sold over two million copies. It has been translated into 37 languages and is winner of four National Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and will be a major new comedy drama for the BBC.

His second book "Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas" was an instant Sunday Times number one bestseller and sold over 500,000 copies in its first few weeks.

"Dear NHS", edited by Adam Kay, was an instant Sunday Times number one with all profits donated to charity. His first children's book "Kay's Anatomy" will be released in October 2020.

FOLLOW ADAM KAY ... ~ GoodReads ~ Website ~ FaceBook ~ 

PURCHASE THE BOOK ... ~ Amazon UK ~ Book Depository ~