Description

Book Synopsis

Now a major BAFTA nominated BBC comedy-drama starring BAFTA and Emmy award-winning actor Ben Whishaw.

The multi-million copy bestseller now with an exclusive preface by the author.

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward.

‘Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen Fry

Sunday Times Number One Bestseller for over a year and winner of a record FOUR National Book Awards: Book of the Year, Non-Fiction Book of the Year, New Writer of the Year and Zoe Ball Book Club Book of the Year.

The BBC series was Winner of Best Longform Drama at the The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards and Best Drama at the Broadcast Awards. Critics' Choice Awards nominee for 'Best Limited Series' and 'Best Actor'.



Trade Review
I’d prescribe this book to anyone and everyone. It's laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly sad and gives you the lowdown on what it’s like to be holding it together while serving on the front line of our beloved but beleaguered NHS. It’s wonderful -- Jonathan Ross
So clinically funny and politically important for supporters of the NHS that it should be given out on prescription * Guardian *
Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable. -- Stephen Fry
Finally a true picture of the harrowing, hilarious and ultimately chaotic life of the junior doctor in all its gory glory, dark comedy and unavoidable sadness. A blisteringly funny account shot through with harrowing detail, many pertinent truths and the humanity we all hope doctors conceal behind their unflappable exteriors -- Jo Brand
As hilarious as it is heartbreaking – and it IS heartbreaking (also hilarious) -- Charlie Brooker
Blisteringly funny, politically enraging and often heartbreaking . . . hilarious . . . brimming not just with humour but with humanity . . . This should be a wake-up call to all who value the NHS -- Hannah Beckerman * Sunday Express *
A funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful book -- Dawn French
Horrifyingly hilarious and hilariously horrifying -- Danny Wallace
A ferociously funny book -- Mark Watson
Superb -- Pam Ayres
As a hypochondriac I was worried about reading Adam Kay’s book. Luckily it’s incredibly funny – so funny, in fact, that it gave me a hernia from laughing -- Joe Lycett
By turns witty, gruesome, alarming, and touching. Always illuminating and searingly honest -- Jonathan Dimbleby
Brilliant -- Mark Haddon

Table of Contents
Introduction - i: Introduction Chapter - 1: House Officer Chapter - 2: Senior House Officer Post 1 Chapter - 3: Senior House Officer Post 2 Chapter - 4: Senior House Officer Post 3 Chapter - 5: Registrar Post 1 Chapter - 6: Registrar Post 2 Chapter - 7: Registrar Post 3 Chapter - 8: Registrar Post 4 Chapter - 9: Senior Registrar Chapter - 10: Aftermath Section - ii: An Open Letter to the Secretary of State for Health Acknowledgements - iii: Acknowledgements

This is Going to Hurt: Now a major BBC

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Order before 4pm today for delivery by Sat 13 Dec 2025.

A Paperback / softback by Adam Kay

15 in stock


    View other formats and editions of This is Going to Hurt: Now a major BBC by Adam Kay

    Publisher: Pan Macmillan
    Publication Date: 03/02/2022
    ISBN13: 9781529062335, 978-1529062335
    ISBN10: 1529062330

    Description

    Book Synopsis

    Now a major BAFTA nominated BBC comedy-drama starring BAFTA and Emmy award-winning actor Ben Whishaw.

    The multi-million copy bestseller now with an exclusive preface by the author.

    Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

    Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward.

    ‘Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen Fry

    Sunday Times Number One Bestseller for over a year and winner of a record FOUR National Book Awards: Book of the Year, Non-Fiction Book of the Year, New Writer of the Year and Zoe Ball Book Club Book of the Year.

    The BBC series was Winner of Best Longform Drama at the The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards and Best Drama at the Broadcast Awards. Critics' Choice Awards nominee for 'Best Limited Series' and 'Best Actor'.



    Trade Review
    I’d prescribe this book to anyone and everyone. It's laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly sad and gives you the lowdown on what it’s like to be holding it together while serving on the front line of our beloved but beleaguered NHS. It’s wonderful -- Jonathan Ross
    So clinically funny and politically important for supporters of the NHS that it should be given out on prescription * Guardian *
    Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable. -- Stephen Fry
    Finally a true picture of the harrowing, hilarious and ultimately chaotic life of the junior doctor in all its gory glory, dark comedy and unavoidable sadness. A blisteringly funny account shot through with harrowing detail, many pertinent truths and the humanity we all hope doctors conceal behind their unflappable exteriors -- Jo Brand
    As hilarious as it is heartbreaking – and it IS heartbreaking (also hilarious) -- Charlie Brooker
    Blisteringly funny, politically enraging and often heartbreaking . . . hilarious . . . brimming not just with humour but with humanity . . . This should be a wake-up call to all who value the NHS -- Hannah Beckerman * Sunday Express *
    A funny, excoriatingly revealing, beautiful book -- Dawn French
    Horrifyingly hilarious and hilariously horrifying -- Danny Wallace
    A ferociously funny book -- Mark Watson
    Superb -- Pam Ayres
    As a hypochondriac I was worried about reading Adam Kay’s book. Luckily it’s incredibly funny – so funny, in fact, that it gave me a hernia from laughing -- Joe Lycett
    By turns witty, gruesome, alarming, and touching. Always illuminating and searingly honest -- Jonathan Dimbleby
    Brilliant -- Mark Haddon

    Table of Contents
    Introduction - i: Introduction Chapter - 1: House Officer Chapter - 2: Senior House Officer Post 1 Chapter - 3: Senior House Officer Post 2 Chapter - 4: Senior House Officer Post 3 Chapter - 5: Registrar Post 1 Chapter - 6: Registrar Post 2 Chapter - 7: Registrar Post 3 Chapter - 8: Registrar Post 4 Chapter - 9: Senior Registrar Chapter - 10: Aftermath Section - ii: An Open Letter to the Secretary of State for Health Acknowledgements - iii: Acknowledgements

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