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"i ended up wasting more time worrying about how i was feeling and reacting than being myself and ultimately the whole exercise was a total waste of time"

"having been through a very difficult period of grieving recently this book confirmed that the emotions i experienced had a physiological explanation"

"i was nearly put off by some of the negative reviews but i'm glad i wasn't"

"sorry to have wasted my money on this book"

"straight into it already on chapter three compulsive reading clearly written and will benefit everyone willing to self examine"

"now about 1 3 way through book bored"

"has been incredibly helpful in helping me grieve for my 2 grandparents and also dealing with depression and anxiety"

"i'm fascinated by the brain but have terrible understanding of biology so thie metaphors used in this book really helped me to understand why i feel my mind is not always my tool but my master"

"advice is very good but what i wasn't expecting was how helpful i found the book for my work i work with people with dementia"

"makes the management of anxiety and depression easier to understand and hopefully to carry out by making understandable the interplay of rational emotional and information retrieval factors in the human mind"

"there are a number of points that i totally disagree with or was that my chimp?"

"what the author has attempted to do is break down extremely complicated human behaviour into a simple to understand and easy to apply model"

"i found the book a little boring to start with!"

"was going through a tough time and this fell into my life"

"however almost instantly it felt like a weight had lifted: i did commit to the daily journaling ‘chimping’ we call it in our house and considering what i have been happy or unhappy with"

"a lot of this book it's either stolen ideas from other books like most management self help books are without any citations or total music representations of ideas it does cite"

"being brought up by an over protective mother who saw danger everywhere has made my life challenging and the fact i love horse riding a somewhat dangerous sport has caused a conflict"

"the chimp can hijack you and is responsible for often irrational or destructive behaviours"

"what the author has attempted to do is break down extremely complicated human behaviour into a simple to understand and easy to apply model"

"interesting concepts and worth a read but with goblins and gremlins described in the early chapters i got a little bored and had to force myself through the large proportion of the book"

"had high hopes for this book but very obvious and not saying anything new"

"review soon antony"

"based on the idea that when you're grumpy that isn't your rational self but you "inner chimp" sounds weird but gives awareness and strategies for when other people are grumpy and also when you can feel yourself getting annoyed"

"the computer stores autopilots useful beliefs or behaviours gremlins destructive beliefs or behaviours that are removable changeable in the computer and goblins destructive beliefs or behaviours that are difficult to remove change "

"this book has helped me realise why some people act like absolute morons it’s not their fault"

"stress situations become much less threatening when you understand what is happening in your hidden mind"

"women are emotional passive aggressive victims who are better off at home looking after their children not going for promotion after all they are always late and disorganised"

"i tried letting my chimp rant on and thought 'this will never go on for 10 minutes' but it did!"

"the concept of having a 'split mind' ie controlling the inner chimp wasn't for me but there was some good advice given and the concept of controlling impulses can be helpful to anyone but i would have preferred more scientific facts than the given concepts of different planets and chimps"

"not as described described as used good had chewed edges to pages tear on back cover and a black tar like substance along font cover"

"'exercising the chimp' 'boxing the chimp' and 'giving the chimp a banana' don't make any sense unless they are explained"

"some great advice for getting you out of bed on a cold morning too it does work"

"all up i found this confused and slightly patronising"

"this book has helped me realise why some people act like absolute morons it’s not their fault"

"i had spent many years dealing with unexplained anger and self sabotage and guilt"

"i’ve always been reactionary and found out it’s because my chimp was mainly in control"

"interesting concepts and worth a read but with goblins and gremlins described in the early chapters i got a little bored and had to force myself through the large proportion of the book"

"i am forcing myself to finish it so that i begin reading my next book"

"i quite quickly and easily identified with most of the concepts presented within the book and in doing so i was able to recognise some gremlins immediately removing these little b*ggers is happening but a little more slowly!"

"surely it would be better to ignore those chimp thoughts to make them go away"

"if you have a little worrier give it a go"

"the descriptions about how the emotional side of us works thinks the chimp gives great insight into how a person with frontal lobe damage might be thinking reacting"

"even referring to my chimp during difficult times has often transformed fraught situations into opportunities for laughter and self reflection"

"this should help you stop being self destructive or hurting others"

"after waiting ages and finally reading it i truly understand why"

"as with everything this book isn’t for everyone but if you have a passionate personality that sometimes loses control this book will really help"

"not touchy feely or psycho babble just great ways to manage your little monkey inside"

"the rest was waffle and pretty patronising"

"if you find yourself acting on impulsive thoughts that more often than not bring out the worst in you then this book is a must read"

"i found this book very hard to follow absolutely flooded with constant new information which was quite overwhelming especially as i use reading to try and relax not get into a tizzy because i couldn’t understand half of what the author was saying i couldn’t even finish it"

"writing them down would make then stronger and make them worse wouldn't it?"

"i guess you either beleive in this or you dont bit like marmite and its not for me so i wouldnt recommend"

"based on the idea that when you're grumpy that isn't your rational self but you "inner chimp" sounds weird but gives awareness and strategies for when other people are grumpy and also when you can feel yourself getting annoyed"

"if your having trouble with life then this is the book that will help you more than a doctors prescription"

"the author’s narration style is little relentless mechanical and monotone"

"luckily i don't have anger management issues but still a thoroughly great read"

"putting it together with buddhism mindfulness and other serious but not quite academic psychology books it in a simple way the only way i can understand things provided a model of the mind ok as the author says very simplified but it answers a lot of questions"

"i thought i was just wrong in the head turns out i have a chimp i've called him kevin and i now feel that i can make a difference for myself!"

"it will not solve all of your problems: if your life is full of stress your life will still be full of stressors if you are obese or lazy or angry then that will always be there until you take charge of yourself and take responsibility and do something about it"

"it's easy to follow and doesn't get technical"

"the only downside for me hence 4 instead of 5 stars is that i got a little bit confused trying to remember all the moons and planets!"

"maybe it's me but i got a bit bored with it"

"i had spent many years dealing with unexplained anger and self sabotage and guilt"

"not touchy feely or psycho babble just great ways to manage your little monkey inside"

"however this isn't really too much of a drawback as the book itself is very readable and i would certainly recommend it"

"the only reason i didn't give this book five stars is that it's a little too dumbed down and uses way too many analogies"

"the book at first is a bit difficult to read and i felt i had to keep going over chapters to understand but i’m glad i stuck with it"

"a shame as the waffle devalued the few and far between little gems hidden underneath the unnecessary 'padding' i had to force myself to finish and sadly wouldn't recommend"

"he seems to use examples from all walks of life to make you relate to the book"

"good read but a bit difficult to folllow at times changes your perception on how the brain works i can see how it helps top sportsmen and people in general well worth a read"

"even referring to my chimp during difficult times has often transformed fraught situations into opportunities for laughter and self reflection"

"it explains the chimp paradox very well with examples and simple exercises so that you can see how you are doing or that challenge you to rethink your behaviour and doing"

"only 80 pages in purposely reading it slowly as advised the key is to identify in real life what prof peters is writing about even after only 80 pages i've felt the benefit identifying my chimp and beginning to manage it!"

"it is very vague boring long and confusing"

"it is also helpful to understand why other people react with anger or aggression towards you which i found very healing"

"the few good points covered in this book could have been covered in a couple of short paragraphs"

"the concept of having a 'split mind' ie controlling the inner chimp wasn't for me but there was some good advice given and the concept of controlling impulses can be helpful to anyone but i would have preferred more scientific facts than the given concepts of different planets and chimps"

"take clontrol of your disruptive influences"

"stress situations become much less threatening when you understand what is happening in your hidden mind"

"however after a while i found it difficult to keep track of the many gremlins autopilots suns rocks etc used to help explain the process often making it more confusing"

"well how wrong was i!"

"dr peters protests he is just reflecting the "science" and no doubt it is my over sensitive chimp which thinks this!"

"anxiety or depression are far more prevalent today if you suffer as i have then this book just might help you to take control of your mind's phrenetic activity and your own emotions"

"she sees a clairvoyant and thinks it's twaddle"

"arrived as stated"

"an idiots guide to the human mind"

"a shame as the waffle devalued the few and far between little gems hidden underneath the unnecessary 'padding' i had to force myself to finish and sadly wouldn't recommend"

"please purchase this book for your school uni or for yourself this is important reading for everyone"

"i can now have an internal dialogue or even out loud if im not in public!"

"i should have had no doubts i am only 2 3 through but i have picked up some awesome tips to use and have actually enjoyed reading this books"

"it feels like it is for kids than adults and repetitive"

"i found this book very hard to follow absolutely flooded with constant new information which was quite overwhelming especially as i use reading to try and relax not get into a tizzy because i couldn’t understand half of what the author was saying i couldn’t even finish it"

"just lots of boring examples "

"i have no hesitation in recommending this book and i will now repeatedly refer to it in my cpd sessions website "

"this is a book for everyone but not everyone will like it"

"the only downside for me hence 4 instead of 5 stars is that i got a little bit confused trying to remember all the moons and planets!"

"it will not solve all of your problems: if your life is full of stress your life will still be full of stressors if you are obese or lazy or angry then that will always be there until you take charge of yourself and take responsibility and do something about it"

"if though you do the late night chocolate raids or deliberately fill your day with meaningless tasks so you don’t have to do the difficult one or just ‘have’ to watch a particular programme which means you don’t have time to go the gym go for a run or even can’t manage to be respectful and polite in your relationships or"

"i don't usually read books so bought this as it was easy to absorb it certainly is with clearly laid out explanations and diagrams too"

"every page is filled with obvious basic gems that i just had never realised"

"i think privately because the exercises will change you it is the human that is growing not the book"

"the only reason i didn't give this book five stars is that it's a little too dumbed down and uses way too many analogies"

"only 3 days in i no longer had road rage"

"i did work through the exercises some of them were incredibly intense and some i still struggle with: what are my actual core beliefs for example?"

"when it's all written down you find yourself saying "oh that's really obvious" or " god i do that all the time" and just a little bit of a pause before you react to something makes a huge difference"

"reading this book highlighted how often my chimp used to make an appearance often at the wrong time wrong place and with the wrong agenda!"

"didn’t like this book"

"it's a book i will never get tired of"

"a chimp computer and other funny descriptions for my brain did sound rather odd"

"what annoyed me was even though i fully accepted the principle i continually failed to apply it even though i wanted to"

"i too would highly recommend it"

"having been through a very difficult period of grieving recently this book confirmed that the emotions i experienced had a physiological explanation"

"the responses from my clients have been varied some get it straight away others find the concept difficult a few feel threatened by the suggestion that our emotions are controlled on a different level to our 'human' consciousness"

"no mention of reptilian brain etc however i think this is missing the point"

"was suffering from low mood and it helped me to realize when my emotions chimp were taking over and stopping me from moving on"

"if you find yourself acting on impulsive thoughts that more often than not bring out the worst in you then this book is a must read"

"ended up giving to former fiancée and apparently it helped saved her marriage so i class this as the most important purchase of the year"

"find this book very repetitive and hard to read"

"i used to be shy unconfident and nervous"

"a lot of your behaviour actions are explained in this book"

"based on the idea that when you're grumpy that isn't your rational self but you "inner chimp" sounds weird but gives awareness and strategies for when other people are grumpy and also when you can feel yourself getting annoyed"

"i know mine was even if i didn't recognise it and i suspect everyone's is"

"kill your passion"

"he has told everyone about it and always asks if we can do it i never prompt him to"

"i was not coming to this naive and i’d heard of this following dr peters’ work with team gb in 2012"

"it's not rocket science just buy the book & re assess your life"

"reading this book highlighted how often my chimp used to make an appearance often at the wrong time wrong place and with the wrong agenda!"

"women are emotional passive aggressive victims who are better off at home looking after their children not going for promotion after all they are always late and disorganised"

"it does ramble on a bit and is perhaps to long"

"i would say that it did ramble at times but the message is powerful which i have distilled what i can immediately use"

"i struggled to find"

"interesting book maybe a bit repetitive at times but a good read all the same"

"i got a bit lost later on!"

"i began feeling anxious everyday tired and started behaving badly i just wasn't myself and my health was suffering"

"might change the review at end of book but so far my chimp is telling this book is just trying to make you not react to any situations"

"a shame as the waffle devalued the few and far between little gems hidden underneath the unnecessary 'padding' i had to force myself to finish and sadly wouldn't recommend"

"had high hopes for this book but very obvious and not saying anything new"

"a disappointing 2 stars"

"my mindset before and after reading this book is world apart"

"i have known for years that behaviour isn't random"

"i was so disappointed total waste of money"

"this book even raised laughs on a very difficult day"

"i'm always very sceptical of books and reviewers that claim a book is 'laugh out loud' funny and probably would have been more swayed by the negative reviews had i not decided to read the first few pages before buying"

"i'm afraid i didn't like the author's style and in this instance felt that i wasted my money"

"this book makes compulsive reading as we follow the ups and downs of adam kay from a medical student to an over worked senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology"

"what a dreadful waste of tax payers money and loss to the nhs when such a caring and conscientious doctor is forced to leave the profession because he cannot face the lack of sleep the ridiculous demands the job makes on his physical and mental health his home life"

"a complete waste of time and money!"

"i would recommend buying do no harm by the neurosurgeon henry marsh instead of this utter tripe"

"it was a huge disappointment badly written poor editing poor content a miserable little book"

"what i didn’t like it was it sometimes demeans the patients pregnant women and having gone through two difficult births i found a man being glib about women’s health pain quite annoying"

"the ruthless exploitation and abuse of medical staff is a total disgrace for which lying greedy politicians of all political parties are to blame"

"could not be posted to amazon i'm very disappointed you have haven chosen not to allow my feed back i feel this is because the of my negativity which is the honest way i've been treated but 0n this occasion honesty is obviously not your best policy !"

"despite that though kay's descriptions had me laughing out loud and whilst i initially found it really irritating having to refer to the footnotes you'll see what i mean these were often the best parts of the book"

"soooo unfunny it's unbelievable"

"absolutely awful"

"so i'd recommend it as a good read but only if read with caution"

"i find the language he uses unnecessarily crude and lazy"

"this book is a true account of how medical professionals are under valued un loved and treated with disrespect by a small minority of society and the catastrophic effect such attitudes have upon these human beings"

"contrived forced humour sad uninteresting antidotes of life as a junior dr"

"i actually found parts of the book quite depressing if i’m honest and some issues made me feel angry especially the injustice of what the author had to endure not just with some difficult and or dumb patients but worse with how he was often taken advantage of by the medical system with the long hours etc"

"the huge amount of explanations also makes for difficult reading of the diary entries having to break off to read the notes"

"this book shows in shocking technicolour the depth of the water junior doctors are thrown into with very little in the way of lifesaving equipment and kay managed to alter the mood deftly in his recounting of events that led to his decision to leave the profession"

"i'm not sure whether that would have had legs for a dinner table moment for him or whether he just thought i was an actual moron"

"it's quite archaic but the nhs has outgrown itself with more high risk cases such as morbid obesity smokers and cases that are pregnant due to advancing technology therefore requiring high input without staffing that goes with these cases"

"nor do i think it's misogynistic just locker room talk which if you sit primly outside as a third party you could get on a hi horse and criticise but in the heat of the day to day is rather insignificant"

"you might think it exaggerated or farfetched but you'd be wrong"

"it's a wonder there aren't more accidents given the horrendous hours they work!"

"lots of unnecessary bad language that had never been mentioned in the reviews did nothing for the book"

"this book clearly shows the overwhelming job doctors have in hospitals portrayed with humour frustration anger and sadness"

"quite a few negative reviewers accuse him of poor crude language"

"but even so seeing it written down in all its awful sleep deprived reality was still shocking"

"i enjoy reading books about life in medicine there’s been several of them recently henry marsh’s excellent books being amongst some that i have read and it’s good that the disclosures in these books about allopathic medicine are there for all to read: plus it seems cathartic for the authors to write about their experiences in medicine some of which are extremely distressing medical cases for which they get no debriefing or counselling and others about how stupid the nhs can be with how its managed"

"the book itself is boring and repetitive"

"it also brings home the huge stretch put on the nhs by absolute idiots who have self inflicted stupid injuries on themselves but who are still seen and treated"

"no idea why the hype about this book unfunny and bland"

"i would like to use one of his expletives myself in this review but fear it would mean a disqualification which is actually what the bma should do with this incompetent"

"drs aren't expected to go off sick get time back owed and expected to just keep on until finishing their job on shift"

"i found it cynical occasionally bordering on misogynist in his horrible descriptions of women and their bodily parts when they are at their most vulnerable gynae detail in the book but perhaps not for a review but describing a womans vagina as a 'tw*t' is one such example "

"the part where adam says the beds were taken away from on call rooms so doctors can’t be seen sleeping on the job made my blood boil!"

"i veered off into general practice and lasted a little longer than he did however in the end successive governments' total lack of anything remotely helpful or supportive finished off my career just the same and with an incredibly heavy heart i threw in the towel in my early 40's"

"i mean why should i be wanting to read about some pathetic person who was never cut out to be a doctor in the first place?"

"i was thoroughly enjoying this book until around the 65% mark on my kindle when his anecdotes started to become a bit boring and repetitive and his tone ever so slightly ‘cocky’"

"i mean what a total idiot"

"dr kay describes a descent into burn out and it is to his credit that he has the courage to get out of the profession when he is unable to laugh anymore rather than to continue to struggle like hundreds of other doctors do ultimatley damaging themselves their family their relationships and their patients"

"too empathetic to the taxing nature of the life and work of a hospital doctor’s incredibly demanding and merciless daily life and the cruel toll it takes"

"after pouring hard decades of your life into the nhs you can enjoy a salary that is nearly as high as what a 26 year old city lawyer or accountant gets and cut back your unpaid overtime to just a couple of hours a day with sunday afternoons for the paperwork"

"a lot of the stories are blatant falsehoods or ripped off from other medical 'diaries"

"some of the stories did have me laughing but the overall impression it leaves is a doctor working hard long hours a job he takes great pride in but in difficult conditions at the limits of his knowledge and strength"

"as funny as this book is the final section will give you a big dose of reality as life as an a+e doctor and bring you back down to earth where the nhs is getting screwed over"

"the fact that it was non fiction made the humour seem tasteless these are real people kaye is writing about and the thought that relatives of his patients could be reading about their vulnerable relatives made me as a health professional myself distinctly uncomfortable"

"he comes across as arrogant uncaring misogynistic with a god complex"

"it should be read by each politician selected to be sos for health although i imagine they would simply pass it to their grossly overpaid advisor for a one paragraph brief"

"i know junior doctors work incredibly hard long thankless hours with little pay to start with and i am so grateful to them i am a qualified nurse so know a little about the workings of hospitals "

"disrespectful inaccurate and offensive"

"plenty of filthy condescending disrespectful songs about patients there too"

"kay does however fill the reader with the impending doom of his rather arbitarily chosen career"

"those young doctors deserve a footballers wage and free housing accommodation!"

"i enjoy reading books about life in medicine there’s been several of them recently henry marsh’s excellent books being amongst some that i have read and it’s good that the disclosures in these books about allopathic medicine are there for all to read: plus it seems cathartic for the authors to write about their experiences in medicine some of which are extremely distressing medical cases for which they get no debriefing or counselling and others about how stupid the nhs can be with how its managed"

"sometimes they’ll say nothing sometimes they might moan sometimes they might cry"

"the situation is now desperately and in many cases life threatening deplorable"

"he describes passing through the grades of sho registrar and senior registrar none of which existed much after the millenium the sr grade having been abolished with disastrous effects by the then cmo calman"

"one was found in bushes beside the car park sound asleep worryingly he had been driving for 30 minutes before getting out of his car and simply sat down and fell asleep"

"the saddest part is how they are treated by other more senior doctors and the management"

"the ruthless exploitation and abuse of medical staff is a total disgrace for which lying greedy politicians of all political parties are to blame"

"it irritated me right from the beginning with its foul language and derogatory tone"

"awful book smattered with totally unnecessary bad language if supposedly written by an intelligent educated person who moans all the time about a profession for which he is obviously unsuited for"

"what a dreadful waste of tax payers money and loss to the nhs when such a caring and conscientious doctor is forced to leave the profession because he cannot face the lack of sleep the ridiculous demands the job makes on his physical and mental health his home life"

"but after reading this book i realise what an insult and slap in the face that comment really was"

"i am not a prude but it was early into the narrative that i found the tone of the book dismissive misogynistic and overall lacking in empathy"

"dr kay is a nasty piece of work"

"the end game a medicosurgical disaster something which doctors at the pointy end of healthcare will experience on a regular basis cruelly knocked him down"

"the prostitute who inserted a child's sponge vaginally to sop up menstrual blood the rich seam of finding humour in the category 'patients who put stupid things into their orifices' has been rather over mined in this book to be honest which has 'been schnitzeled flat by her clients' pummellings over the past three months' nice empathy there doctor"

"you were too hard on yourself but i understand completely"

"i’m glad others in the review section have also come to a disappointing conclusion about this book"

"sections are ‘read out loud to the nearest person’ hilarious the last section is so unrelentingly tragic it quite literally sent me into a full on panic attack"

"but above all it made me very very angry!"

"this is one of the funniest saddest books i've read in a long time drama pathos whatever that means tears and laughter"

"also illuminating and very shocking"

"i work in the public sector and understand that you need to be flexible but the thought that we’re putting junior staff under such stress is very unpalatable"

"on many occasion during the book adam points to “stupidity” his own too negligence ignorance ineptitude and fallibility"

"the last bit is perhaps the most important highlighting the bad distribution of nhs funds with the higher echelons being paid the most for doing the least whilst the staff on the ground working ridiculous hours and being paid such a low wage suffer most and as highlighted in this book eventually throw in the towel and leave"

"so much so that if i’m ever taken to a+e for a life threatening emergency i’d tell my doctor to finish their coffee first"

"the book was very badly written boring in the extreme and not at all funny"

"in the nhs in some situations a gallows humour has to be adopted and i am sure it is the same for all the emergency services"

"definitely gives you a better understanding of the ridiculous hours and unfair responsibility the junior doctors are subject to"

"the book does not hold back on any of the difficulties you need to overcome on a day to day basis or the massive drain it has on your own life and instead of painting a picture of doctors as being beyond human it gives a more realistic view"

"the nhs relies on the goodwill of its staff working past their time usually writing up notes or incident forms that you haven’t had time to do during your shift or swapping their shift due to staff shortages at the last minute relies on them building their own support network instead of giving them the right support to deal with traumatic events that are all too common in the job but no amount of training will ever prepare you for working through their breaks “because the ward is too busy”"

"the 6 month all change rule also makes a complete mockery of the info i am given"

"spoiler alert: the ending is not what you might expect"

"what this has also done is make me even more proud of the nhs and its amazing staff and made me even more irritated by the inability of our government to see that and their inability to fix stuff such as failing systems"

"it irritated me right from the beginning with its foul language and derogatory tone"

"it paints a rather depressing picture of life as a doctor in an inefficient and stretched system"

"also known for his song parodies he was the entertainment at prince harry's 30th birthday adam's decision to leave medicine and go into entertainment full time is explained here and it's a very sad story"

"how they cope with the dangerously long hours on duty and often with huge responsibility prematurely on their shoulders is an eye opener"

"they can be confessional and moving and frequently highlight the crumbling structure of the nhs and the failure of politicians to appreciate the effect of policies they enact"

"i am in awe but equally so angry about the way the national health service is funded run politicised putting not only patients’ lives at risk but the terrible toll it has on the medical profession"

"no only is it eye opening into the life or lack of of our junior doctors and the often ridiculous situations they face it will also make you realise without a doubt that the wellbeing of our healthcare providers is worth fighting for"

"an example that haunted me was that if a baby has died in the womb the mother is still obliged to deliver it in a normal labour ward surrounded by mothers giving birth to healthy living babies how insensitive is that?"

"ever been a duty solicitor in crime and had to spend all night in the cells and be paid a lousy wage"

"read this book and then look yourself in the mirror before nagging the doctor for an unnecessary antibiotic or sticking something not designed for the purpose inside yourself!"

"at first i was somewhat irritated by the appearance of forced humour but this quickly gave place to enormous respect and sympathy"

"i wish a little more time had been spent on expanding the entries mainly because their brevity sometimes makes the author seem brash when i don't think it is the case"

"mixed feelings but overall i didn't enjoy it as much as i'd hoped"

"the nhs simply does not look after it's staff and like the doctor in the book both he and i and many other staff have left exhausted and frustrated that we never had sufficient staff the management who know very little about medical matters are running the nhs and telling medical staff how to do their jobs!"

"having experienced our health service quite extensively as a father to a very poorly child this could be seen as a very worrying portrayal of the system you rely on however reading this retrospectively when the dark tunnel of constant fear and worry is behind you it really is quite cathartic"

"to be fair he seems fairly misanthropic generally but i can't help thinking that if you view women as silly vapid and a collection of icky body parts that's not going to make you a wonderful practitioner"

"well written extremely frank description of one young doctors journey to becoming a consultant the long hours the unexpected objects inserted in surprising places the cost to his health physical and mental the kindness the missed sleep the missed parties and the ones he'd wished he'd missed"

"he is rude arrogant condescending hates his job moans about his pay his patients his colleagues etc etc etc"

"" as distressing as infertility clearly is it is hardly the same as a life threatening cancer"

"it also brings home the huge stretch put on the nhs by absolute idiots who have self inflicted stupid injuries on themselves but who are still seen and treated"

"the nhs is on its knees and those in power need a damned wake up call it would do them good to roll their sleeves up and actually work on the wards theatres corridors all areas beside the hard working staff from the lowest paid to highest to see what real hard working people have to cope with on a day to day basis"

"the minister in charge must be aware of this but have a callous disregard for the suffering"

"now jeremy hunt’s inadequacy has been somersaulted by further political manoeuvring brexit & the impending privatisation of this marvellous institution"

"the fault lies with the legions of politicians who have lied and bullied anyone who has tried to highlight the bungling inefficiencies and refusal to accept the need for the health service to be properly funded"

"i've also felt my anger escalate to a very uncomfortable level"

"the main problem i had was the short written record of events and i was left wondering if i was reading a comedy script or a account of life in the nhs"

"the human condition in extremis is not to be treated flippantly"

"pointless remarks?"

"billions of our tax money are thrown annually at the service"

"whilst there is a is an overwhelming focus on female medical issues due to the author’s career path this is more than compensated by anecdotes about degloving and the dubious use of candles and fans by foolish males"

"sadly the long working hours and overworked staff continue to cause problems and there doesn't appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel"

"they survive on practically no sleep they never get cover and they have to know every inch of every medical condition they might encounter"

"some of the stories did have me laughing but the overall impression it leaves is a doctor working hard long hours a job he takes great pride in but in difficult conditions at the limits of his knowledge and strength"

"of course this is a book about sick people not just the stupidly injured so there are some moments there where you realise how fragile a human life can be and exactly what the mind and body is or is not capable of"

"for anyone like me who has spent hours and days in a&e or sundry hospital wards it is impossible not to be moved by the excessive demands placed upon our medics at all levels"

"they can be confessional and moving and frequently highlight the crumbling structure of the nhs and the failure of politicians to appreciate the effect of policies they enact"

"from cringe worthy blunt to hurtful honesty"

"not a book just a list of nasty experiences and some awful medical definitions"

"what i didn’t like it was it sometimes demeans the patients pregnant women and having gone through two difficult births i found a man being glib about women’s health pain quite annoying"

"not the reality of ridiculously long hours etc"

"this book reports through six years of “private” diaries the course of adam kay’s career from medical student to senior registrar and the reasons for his ultimate resignation from the national health service"

"eventually the pressure is too much and sadly he resigns from the nhs as a retired doctor i was really able to relate to his struggles and the sense of relentless pressure from the job often without time to eat or do anything else and i think things are worse now than when i was in practice"

"of course this is a book about sick people not just the stupidly injured so there are some moments there where you realise how fragile a human life can be and exactly what the mind and body is or is not capable of"

"sounds like he went into medicine for the wrong reasons and learned the hard way"

"don’t be put off by the intrusion of gallows humour i think most of us needed it as a form of mental insurance!"

"lots of cliche over indulgent self pity"

"you cry through laughter and the cold realisation of the abhorrence of doing the most important job in civilisation as an underrested underpaid under appreciated servent of society"

"the guy illustrates himself as a relentless saviour throughout every page of the book with his stories of self sacrifice and dedication to life but then makes fun of someone for grieving their dog"

"a mockery of the misconceptions of medicine a giggle at some of the silly things people do and say an account of many objects rammed into suspicious places and a personal insight into the experiences of one junior doctor"

"i am a doctor and bought this having seen his show advertised at the edinburgh fringe then being unable to get tickets"

"i fled the nhs 18 years ago and even then it was overstretched and creaking friends tell me how much worse it is now which is heartbreaking to hear"

"i hope the "lay person" can gain a better understanding of the stress of the medical staff before their numerous complaints about front line staff as managers in their offices have no idea of what really matters on the "shop floor" was disappointed when i finished the book a hard act to follow adam kay!"

"there are a few sections where the more squeamish might find it a difficult read"

"it is hardly surprising that this book has been a bestseller in the uk given its warts & all account of life working as a junior doctor in the nhs"

"is the third poorest performer compared to the 18 developed countries on the overall rate at which people die when successful medical care could have saved their lives" 3 "it has consistently higher rates of death for babies at birth or just after perinatal mortality and in the month after birth" it is sad to say but for a number of serious conditions you are less likely to survive when treated by the nhs than if you were treated by an "average" health care system"

"what a shame adam felt he had to stop being a doctor but totally understandable"

"the is the most bitter sweet book i have ever read and if i was prime minister it would be law that everyone reads it"

"my major sadness is that the pressures proved too much for adam he isn’t the only one"

"interestingly in it highlights how hard doctors work also v funny in places asia basically anecdotes about former patients"

"i've shed tears of both laughter and sadness reading this book"

"having been a junior doctor myself i completely identified with all his difficulties exhaustion and emotional commitment and dedication"

"and to the obvious detriment to any personal relationships or families?"

"am not in a medically related field however this book was really insightful as to what it must be like to be a medic and the really difficult decisions medics need to make day to day"

"still other reviewers have taken him to task for his potty mouth and crass humour"

"doctors teachers and so many public service professionals are leaving their "vocations" and this little book gives us an insight into why and why as a nation we should try to arrest the decline"

"a very good book marred by unwarranted low life expletives"

"dr kay with his book has broken this taboo"

"it was a huge disappointment badly written poor editing poor content a miserable little book"

"the writer is simply but tragically burnt out by the extremes of his workload & the book has a very poignant message about the unrealistic demands we place on our hospital doctors"

"this was a book club choice for me as this is womens problems!"

"frighten her to death !"

"i felt quite angry after reading this as it clearly shows the disregard the government has for our medical profession"

"lots of cliche over indulgent self pity"

"however comments like ‘the midwife will run along and do the bloods’ and his endless comments about the stupidity of his colleagues nurses and patients was simply unnecessary"

"i have been the impatient nurse paging an already overstretched junior doctor to come and review a patient prescribe more pain relief or fluids check gent or vanc levels or write a discharge letter as the patient is standing in front of me dressed holding their packed belongings with their angry relative who has come to collect them"

"luckily i do not suffer any pain"

"style lacunae: gaps in the text that does not deal with an important issue and is therefore not effective or convincing "

"but even so seeing it written down in all its awful sleep deprived reality was still shocking"

"if it wasn't for how hard some doctors and nurses work beyond their official working hours the nh s would be in a poorer state then it is now"

"you bang your head against a brick wall trying to get the government to understand i am in education"

"the last bit is perhaps the most important highlighting the bad distribution of nhs funds with the higher echelons being paid the most for doing the least whilst the staff on the ground working ridiculous hours and being paid such a low wage suffer most and as highlighted in this book eventually throw in the towel and leave"

"as a nurse with over forty years experience in neonatal care i was hooked into this book by the 4 star reviews"

"what i didn’t like it was it sometimes demeans the patients pregnant women and having gone through two difficult births i found a man being glib about women’s health pain quite annoying"

"as a fan of amateur transplants and their work as a band i already had a predisposition to enjoy adam kay's work and the book never failed me"

"also why condoms should have a picture warning on the packet"

"the author dr adam kay worked principally in the obstetrics & gynaecology depts of various hospitals & writes of constantly having to deal with one life threatening crisis after another of over long shifts often having to be extended by yet another crisis 10 minutes before he is due to clock off & of the constant constant need for sleep"

"also i wasn’t sure some of the diary entries particularly those which weren’t about work were really true eg the stag do "

"it made me feel guilty about complaining about how hard i work in my flexible part time work that stretches to almost full time and sometimes 7 days a week"

"no only is it eye opening into the life or lack of of our junior doctors and the often ridiculous situations they face it will also make you realise without a doubt that the wellbeing of our healthcare providers is worth fighting for"

"there is an underlying message that the nhs is itself suffering from too much pressure on essential doctors and nurses"

"should read this book and maybe just maybe our wonderful nhs and medical staff would get the funding they deserve"

"examples of the stress experienced by so called “junior doctors” working often unsupported and having to deal with multiple emergencies often at the expense of their personal commitments"

"if anyone is slightly squeamish about that area you might want to give the book a miss"

"if you don't laugh like a drain reading this then your name is probably jeremy hunt"

"there was an underlying tone that i didn't enjoy"

"i synpathise with adam kay and how hard he worked etc etc but the way he tried to put his point across was completely ruined each time because rather than write properly with descriptive adjectives he repeatedly used swear words"

"it must be aweful to be accused of a mistake knowing full well that you were so tired and could hardly stand when this unfortunate error occurred i think in this man's case it was when through a mishap in communication a baby died and very nearly the mother"

"hearing the hype surrounding this book i was very skeptical i was concerned that a dr had turned patients worst moments in to humour to sell a book"

"also if you don't like the use of the "f" word in this book probably not for you and also probably not one to buy your aged aunt unless you want to"

"the contempt for women who ask questions or want options clearly explained to them"

"i was that disaster"

"unless something is done about it there will be no nhs with cheap doctor slavery but i guess this is what the main aim is from the powers that be"

"an nhs already stretched to the limits in terms of staffing will only get worse if we cant support the staff we have"

"what this has also done is make me even more proud of the nhs and its amazing staff and made me even more irritated by the inability of our government to see that and their inability to fix stuff such as failing systems"

"what a dreadful waste of tax payers money and loss to the nhs when such a caring and conscientious doctor is forced to leave the profession because he cannot face the lack of sleep the ridiculous demands the job makes on his physical and mental health his home life"

"i like the unrelenting attachment to the profession and healthy disrespect for ruling politicians and most of all the glimpse into the life of a specialist doctor"

"it's hard to write funny it's hard to write compelling it's hard to write heart breaking unless that is you're adam kay in which case you can apparently just bash out all three while you're working as a doctor"

"dr kay describes a descent into burn out and it is to his credit that he has the courage to get out of the profession when he is unable to laugh anymore rather than to continue to struggle like hundreds of other doctors do ultimatley damaging themselves their family their relationships and their patients"

"this must be an unimaginably traumatic experience for a caring doctor"

"quite a few negative reviewers accuse him of poor crude language"

"my opinion is it’s rubbish"

"waste of time"

"firstly this book should come with a health warning: do not start reading this late at night unless you don't need sleep and secondly if you do read it in bed ensure you are alone as you may end up in hospital when your partner threatens to shove your kindle up your rectum because your constant laughing and snorting is keeping him awake but thankfully having read up all about pr's i felt confident that the junior doctors would be able to remove it if necessary"

"i'm always very sceptical of books and reviewers that claim a book is 'laugh out loud' funny and probably would have been more swayed by the negative reviews had i not decided to read the first few pages before buying"

"sometimes they’ll say nothing sometimes they might moan sometimes they might cry"

"was looking for humour but a bit of a let down for my taste"

"i had very mixed views about this book"

"it was moan moan moan"

"on a more serious note the reality of being a junior dr and the long hours is quite shocking"

"starts off very funny indeed but soon turns into an endless list of boring and repetitive stories about the gynaecology ward"

"i know there is a shortage of both nurses and doctors but my personal opinion is that there is too much hierachy involved in the nhs"

"this book just isn't funny at all and there's too much swearing i it"

"the two parts which will stay with me forever is the description of the lost swab incident yes we do crawl around the floor and delve into the ‘bran tub of doom’ on such an occurrence and the reason for being late out from work almost every single shift"

"it must be aweful to be accused of a mistake knowing full well that you were so tired and could hardly stand when this unfortunate error occurred i think in this man's case it was when through a mishap in communication a baby died and very nearly the mother"

"as a retired member of the medical profession a junior doctor as he was then relies heavily on the nursing staff to keep them right in many aspects of patient care and senior consultants preferences on procedures"

"i am sorry he was unable to carry on"

"i'm a doctor and been through all the same stuff and i must say he sounds quite melodramatic and over the top"

"it doesn't shy away from how negligent quick fixes or plain old accidents might come about i'm not sure i'd have a steady hand after no food or sleep for one day least of all two with a never ending bleep and no rest in sight"

"kay does however fill the reader with the impending doom of his rather arbitarily chosen career"

"the real tragedy is that he's unlikely to be the last"

"working insane hours they are expected to make life or death decisions and be able to function on a level that requires total concentration and commitment"

"i read it really quickly probably won't ever read it again and i've forgotten most of it"

"on the whole though it's a cover to cover whinge about how tough life is as a junior doctor i am sure much the same could be said of junior teachers or junior most things even junior lawyers and how badly the nhs operates again i am sure much the same could be said of most institutionalised professions and maybe this needed to be said by someone to get the attention the nhs needs but kay doesn't offer any solutions or practical advice and it certainly doesn't explain the extraordinary sales figures"

"but it doesn’t stop there once one becomes a consultant the desperation desolation irritation and sometimes rage re appear at regular intervals"

"is the third poorest performer compared to the 18 developed countries on the overall rate at which people die when successful medical care could have saved their lives" 3 "it has consistently higher rates of death for babies at birth or just after perinatal mortality and in the month after birth" it is sad to say but for a number of serious conditions you are less likely to survive when treated by the nhs than if you were treated by an "average" health care system"

"it's probably worth noting that a large part of the book focuses on gynaecology and obstetrics so i imagine it might be too emotionally heavy in parts for people who've had difficulty in either area as a patient"

"there is a political element to this book and given the recent issues that the nhs faces it would have been wrong to ignore these aspects"

"also the level of pastoral care for junior doctors seemed to be totally non existent one hopes that it has changed since the diaries were written but somehow i sadly doubt it"

"he was clearly never cut out to be a doctor he hated every minute of it and is no great loss to medicine"

"i don’t usually read anything remotely to do with human services as i work in them but i happened on this one after a recommendation"

"he's perhaps lucky he chose obstetrics because we can imagine those in a&e or say cardiology face this awful reality far more frequently than an obstetrician"

"having experienced our health service quite extensively as a father to a very poorly child this could be seen as a very worrying portrayal of the system you rely on however reading this retrospectively when the dark tunnel of constant fear and worry is behind you it really is quite cathartic"

"the time framework of the book doesn't ring true"

"i found it cynical occasionally bordering on misogynist in his horrible descriptions of women and their bodily parts when they are at their most vulnerable gynae detail in the book but perhaps not for a review but describing a womans vagina as a 'tw*t' is one such example "

"but do not do what i did and read it while on the bus going to and from work on the way in i was laughing so hard people were giving me funny looks while on the journey home i was an emotional mess after having something in my eye for 20mins *a complete lie"

"whether you're an occasional visitor to hospitals or there far too often you will enjoy it"

"yes there are tragic times"

"having experienced our health service quite extensively as a father to a very poorly child this could be seen as a very worrying portrayal of the system you rely on however reading this retrospectively when the dark tunnel of constant fear and worry is behind you it really is quite cathartic"

"nor do i think it's misogynistic just locker room talk which if you sit primly outside as a third party you could get on a hi horse and criticise but in the heat of the day to day is rather insignificant"

"yes i know the budget is tight but something has to give and sadly it is the patients and those working the frontline that suffer the most"

"some hard hitting and sad stories that will show people what it is really like working in hospital"

"there are definitely a few ‘ouch’ moments and the frequent talk of bodily fluids all the things that can go wrong with the human body and things that people do to themselves for pleasure or vanity might not be for the faint hearted!"

"people who are offended by what he's written need to chill or come up with a alternative to dark humour that helps medical professionals retain their sanity"

"mine certainly is not i became really bored at 25% so abandoned the rest"

"thank god he has left and the way it has been written😫😫😫 quite frankly i am astounded this boring and offensive excause for a book was written by a person of allegedly high intelligence"

"managed to plough my way through 20% before giving up in frustration"

"other reviews have taken a rather less sympathetic approach that his book is essentially a 280 page whineathon"

"other passengers may notice when you get to the bits about human stupidity"

"it's quite archaic but the nhs has outgrown itself with more high risk cases such as morbid obesity smokers and cases that are pregnant due to advancing technology therefore requiring high input without staffing that goes with these cases"

"this is a really funny book but at the same time a very sad reflection of how ridiculously stretched staff at all levels are and how over worked and underpaid they are by the nhs!"

"the unbelievable pressure the people who save lives work under is totally criminal they have no time for a private life no time to relax barely any time to sleep"

"i am a doctor and bought this having seen his show advertised at the edinburgh fringe then being unable to get tickets"

"the lack of public resources and some very sad events"

"having an alternative career as a writer would have helped but the relentlessness of the work so angrily described must have made the decision easier"

"don't get me wrong it's very readable and quite amusing but it got repetitive rather too soon"

"i have also been the nurse on nightshift when things have been the “q” word turning a blind eye as a junior doctor sneaks into the day unit next door for some shut eye because they are exhausted on their 5th night"

"the real tragedy is that he's unlikely to be the last"

"it’s also ugly cry heartbreaking"

"i'm just a little old fashioned where the f word is used so commonly these days everywhere so much that babies will be bungie jumping out of the womb screams 'f who turned the light on'"

"i won’t spoil anything but that part is where your laughter tears change to sad tears"

"his dry sardonic wit literally had me crying with laughter his sarcasm and self depreciating humour and observational comedy was pure gold"

"it left me even more concerned about the nhs and how it’s going to cope with the baby boomers generation growing old"

"an example that haunted me was that if a baby has died in the womb the mother is still obliged to deliver it in a normal labour ward surrounded by mothers giving birth to healthy living babies how insensitive is that?"

"how wrong could i be"

"contrary to their views that the author was arrogant and rude and didn’t care about his patients adam struck me as a great dedicated doctor"

"to be fair he seems fairly misanthropic generally but i can't help thinking that if you view women as silly vapid and a collection of icky body parts that's not going to make you a wonderful practitioner"

"this doctor came across as arrogant and conceited"

"i don't want to get too much into the political side of it as i'd probably write enough to make my own book but a huge change needs to happen and asap before an already dying nhs finally gives up the ghost completely"

"however they did not effectively address the bullying boasting intimidation lack of consideration and nastiness they had to endure because of the consequences to their career"

"what doctors have to deal with on very little sleep the huge responsibilities they have and the decisions they have to make are shocking"

"despite this the brevity does also help in conveying the rush and chaos of the job and how little time there really is to care or show you care as the next emergency beckons tiredness overcomes you and numbs you"

"from the report: 1 "the uk’s nhs performs worse than the average in the treatment of eight out of the 12 most common causes of death" 2 ""

"but this really brings it home in all its falling asleep at the traffic lights brutal reality"

"i agree with most comments that the book is very funny but we should not forget the roots of a bad medical system that allows individual or a group of individuals to fail to apply knowledge if any correctly"

"uproariously funny for the most part but tinged with the frustration that medical staff in the nhs are fighting an uphill and possibly a losing battle in terms of patient satisfaction due to inadequate funds and trained personnel"

"their training is an ongoing baptism by fire during which sadly more and more doctors are moving abroad to countries where they are properly valued properly paid and never asked to work continuously for close to 100 hours"

"we are losing wonderful doctors like this from the profession due to the unbearable intolerable pressure they are put under"

"very accessible for non medics kay provides footnotes to explain procedures and medical jargon throughout the book which can be a bit irritating at times but are also funny in their own right"

"read it in oct 2019 when the whole stupid time and money wasting saga of brexit was in full cry"

"the short sections on cancer are particularly tough"

"life seems to be a tsunami of problems accompanied by sheer exhaustion"

"contrary to their views that the author was arrogant and rude and didn’t care about his patients adam struck me as a great dedicated doctor"

"we should support these doctors more"

"it must be aweful to be accused of a mistake knowing full well that you were so tired and could hardly stand when this unfortunate error occurred i think in this man's case it was when through a mishap in communication a baby died and very nearly the mother"

"it was a huge disappointment badly written poor editing poor content a miserable little book"