Adam Kay's This Is Going To Hurt to be published by Picador
This Is Going To Hurt, a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor from doctor turned comedian Adam Kay published by Picador, offering his perspective on the future of the NHS.
Picador Editorial Director Francesca Main has acquired world rights to This Is Going To Hurt, inspired by Kay's sell-out Edinburgh Fringe show on the same topic.
Adam Kay was a junior doctor from 2004 until 2010, before a devastating experience on a ward caused him to reconsider his future. He kept a diary throughout his training, and This Is Going To Hurt intersperses tales from the front line of the NHS with reflections on the current crisis.
The result is a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy, and a love letter to those who might at any moment be holding our lives in their hands.
Francesca Main said:
‘I saw Adam’s Edinburgh show last summer and, along with the rest of the audience, spent the first 50 minutes in stitches and the final 10 in tears. I’m thrilled to be publishing the often hilarious, at times horrifying, and occasionally heartbreaking This Is Going To Hurt, which shines a light on the everyday heroism of junior doctors and shares a few secrets that will make your toes curl. Adam has a brilliant voice and a unique story to tell – this is the book David Sedaris might have written, if only he had spent six years in scrubs.’
Adam Kay said:
‘I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Picador on my first book. Francesca and the whole team are fantastic – it’s an absolute honour to be invited to bring the tone of their brand down so dramatically. Even if only one person reads it, that’s one more person who knows the truth about life as a junior doctor and one more voice who can stand up for the future of the NHS. Although if only one person reads the book, Picador will have made a catastrophic mistake in commissioning it.’
Adam Kay is a writer and script editor for TV and film. During his transition from doctor to writer he established himself as a musical comedian as frontman of Amateur Transplants, achieving great success and over 20 million YouTube hits.
Read more about This is Going to Hurt when Adam Kay met with Mark Watson.
This is Going to Hurt
by Adam Kay
‘Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen Fry
Welcome to 97-hour weeks. Welcome to life and death decisions. Welcome to a constant tsunami of bodily fluids. Welcome to earning less than the hospital parking meter. Wave goodbye to your friends and relationships . . .
Welcome to the life of a junior doctor.