Please note the following article contains references to ill health, traumatic injuries and death.

Rating: ****

Genre: Humour

SYNOPSIS

I am deeply proud of the NHS and what it does for our country. I have family and friends working in the service and I, being highly accident prone and coming from a family that has had more than their fair share of run-ins with bad health, will happily regale people with stories, both funny and moving, of my numerous experiences with it.

Dear NHS takes that premise and asks famous faces to do the same: regale fans the world over with their stories of the NHS and its wonderful workers. And provide stories they did. 

So many wanted to contribute in fact, that Adam Kay actually received more than the 100 he originally aimed for (a fact that is comically addressed in the foreword written by Kay). 

There are moving stories, funny stories, hopeful stories and genuine thanks, with the publisher’s website deeming the anthology “a love letter to the NHS and the 1.4 million people who go above and beyond the call of duty every single day”.

There are faces all generations will recognise in this anthology, with contributors including actors David Tennant, Emma Thompson and Emilia Clarke, singer Ed Sheeran, radio and TV presenter Dermot O’Leary, plus comedic actors Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry and Dawn French. 

REVIEW

I read - or rather devoured - Adam Kay’s first book This Is Going To Hurt in a number of hours. I am fascinated by the history of medicine and the story of the NHS, so when I learnt about Dear NHS I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. 

The book is very clear from the outset that it is not only a charity book, but also an homage to those working in the NHS. There’s the famous image from Banksy that adorns its cover showing a child choosing a nurse from all of their ‘superhero’ toys and the use of the rainbow colour scheme in its title, something that is now synonymous with the NHS throughout this difficult time.

I was also enticed by a number of the celebrity writers who had been involved. There were household names and fan favourites such as TV presenter Graham Norton, but also those that you don’t often see a vulnerable side of, for example comedian Jimmy Carr. I couldn’t wait to hear their tales of what the NHS had done for them. 

PLOT

Each celebrity writer has submitted their own letter of thanks to the NHS. Some are via stories of their own brushes with the NHS through injury or illness; some through tales of watched care and attention received by loved ones and some by means of a direct thank you and appreciation post. 

Obviously, my own views of the NHS had probably tainted my opinion of the stories I would be reading and I did expect that they would all be tales of unabashed gratitude, waxing lyrical on the care and attention received from a system that, let’s face it, is overworked, often underappreciated and frequently underfunded. 

Whilst some are truly remarkable feats of gratitude, I was a little surprised to find that this was not always the case and there were one or two stories that felt a little bit like after thoughts or forced submissions.

I was in fact surprisingly underwhelmed by those I had (rather presumptuously perhaps) expected great things from. Activist Malala Yousafzai, for example, I had expected a deep and emotive extract from, but her submission is only a few lines of generic thanks.

Others though are outstanding. I cried through Dawn French’s loving ode to the nurses, doctors and staff who beautifully took care of her mother during her final days; the story reminded me of the vigilant care and support my grandfather had received during his last days. 

Journalist Caitlin Moran, whose letter expresses the importance of giving blood, had me roused; shivers running down my spine and my hairs standing on end. There are many entries like this: Mark Gatiss, Jimmy Carr, Jo Brand, Sali Hughes, Graham Norton to name a few and they much outweigh those more underwhelming entries. 

The stories in the book are emotive. I laughed through some; shed a tear through some and was honestly dumbfounded by others. Profits from the book are distributed between NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust, of which Adam Kay is a patron. 

Favourite Quote: 

“Knowing there is a system of care, a net to catch us when we fall, is one of this country’s greatest success stories … We simply couldn’t survive without the NHS. It is the best of us.”  Mark Gatiss

Read If: You want an emotional read; you want an anthology book that you can put down and pick up quite easily.

Made Me Think: About why NHS staff do the jobs they do and why it is such a difficult yet rewarding profession. 

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Written by Jenna Tomlinson