Listen free for 30 days
-
Dear NHS
- A Collection of Stories to Say Thank You
- Narrated by: Caitlin Moran, Candice Carty-Williams, Ed Sheeran, Jack Whitehall, Joanna Lumley, Lee Child, Michael Palin, Paul McCartney, Renni Eddo-Lodge, Stanley Tucci, Stephen Fry, Various
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Science
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor
- By: Max Pemberton
- Narrated by: Alexi Armitage
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting on the evening before he begins work as a doctor, this audiobook charts Max Pemberton's touching and funny journey through his first year in the NHS. Progressing from youthful idealism to frank bewilderment, Max realises how little his job is about 'saving people' and how much of his time is taken up by signing forms and trying to figure out all the important things no one has explained yet - for example, the crucial question of how to tell whether someone is dead or not.
-
-
Worth a listen!
- By Sarah Elizabeth Jones on 01-03-19
-
What Seems to Be the Problem with Adam Kay and Mark Watson
- In Support of The Lullaby Trust
- By: Adam Kay, Mark Watson
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Mark Watson
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What Seems to Be the Problem with Adam Kay and Mark Watson reveals the intriguing and hilarious ways the body can go wrong - and the amazing stories that unfold when the medical world tries to help.... In conversation with his (very health-anxious) friend, the comedian Mark Watson, best-selling doctor-turned-writer Adam Kay takes a scalpel to the bizarre past, often-surprising present and fantastical future of medicine.
-
-
Funny in places but they talk over each other
- By Gary S. on 23-08-19
-
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 at Christmastime. Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.
-
-
Bloody loved it!
- By Gemma on 17-10-19
-
Kay’s Anatomy
- A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Sandi Toksvig, Rose Matafeo, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explore each organ of the body in this immersive audiobook edition of Kay's Anatomy, read by Adam Kay with a full cast of voices, including Mark Gatiss, Sandi Toksvig, Andy Nyman and Lolly Adefope. Do you ever think about your body and how it all works? Like really properly think about it? The human body is extraordinary and fascinating and, well...pretty weird. Yours is weird; mine is weird; your maths teacher's is even weirder. This book is going to tell you what's actually going on in there and answer the really important questions.
-
-
Didn't' expect this to be a kids book!
- By Cameron Lewis on 16-10-20
-
This Is Going to Hurt
- Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Heartbreaking and hilarious!
- By rachch on 20-09-17
-
Kay's Marvellous Medicine
- A Gross and Gruesome History of the Human Body
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Jan Ravens, Dan Tetsell
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The brand-new, hilarious book from best-selling, record-breaking author Adam Kay. The olden days were pretty fun if you liked wearing chainmail or chopping people's heads off, but there was one tiny little problem back then...doctors didn't have the slightest clue about how our bodies worked. It's time to find out why Ancient Egyptians thought the brain was just a useless load of old stuffing that might as well be chucked in the bin, why teachers forced their pupils to smoke cigarettes, why hairdressers would cut off their customers' legs and why people used to get paid for farting.
-
-
Amazing
- By Offonmyholidays on 14-12-21
-
Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor
- By: Max Pemberton
- Narrated by: Alexi Armitage
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting on the evening before he begins work as a doctor, this audiobook charts Max Pemberton's touching and funny journey through his first year in the NHS. Progressing from youthful idealism to frank bewilderment, Max realises how little his job is about 'saving people' and how much of his time is taken up by signing forms and trying to figure out all the important things no one has explained yet - for example, the crucial question of how to tell whether someone is dead or not.
-
-
Worth a listen!
- By Sarah Elizabeth Jones on 01-03-19
-
What Seems to Be the Problem with Adam Kay and Mark Watson
- In Support of The Lullaby Trust
- By: Adam Kay, Mark Watson
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Mark Watson
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What Seems to Be the Problem with Adam Kay and Mark Watson reveals the intriguing and hilarious ways the body can go wrong - and the amazing stories that unfold when the medical world tries to help.... In conversation with his (very health-anxious) friend, the comedian Mark Watson, best-selling doctor-turned-writer Adam Kay takes a scalpel to the bizarre past, often-surprising present and fantastical future of medicine.
-
-
Funny in places but they talk over each other
- By Gary S. on 23-08-19
-
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 at Christmastime. Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.
-
-
Bloody loved it!
- By Gemma on 17-10-19
-
Kay’s Anatomy
- A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Sandi Toksvig, Rose Matafeo, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explore each organ of the body in this immersive audiobook edition of Kay's Anatomy, read by Adam Kay with a full cast of voices, including Mark Gatiss, Sandi Toksvig, Andy Nyman and Lolly Adefope. Do you ever think about your body and how it all works? Like really properly think about it? The human body is extraordinary and fascinating and, well...pretty weird. Yours is weird; mine is weird; your maths teacher's is even weirder. This book is going to tell you what's actually going on in there and answer the really important questions.
-
-
Didn't' expect this to be a kids book!
- By Cameron Lewis on 16-10-20
-
This Is Going to Hurt
- Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Heartbreaking and hilarious!
- By rachch on 20-09-17
-
Kay's Marvellous Medicine
- A Gross and Gruesome History of the Human Body
- By: Adam Kay
- Narrated by: Adam Kay, Jan Ravens, Dan Tetsell
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The brand-new, hilarious book from best-selling, record-breaking author Adam Kay. The olden days were pretty fun if you liked wearing chainmail or chopping people's heads off, but there was one tiny little problem back then...doctors didn't have the slightest clue about how our bodies worked. It's time to find out why Ancient Egyptians thought the brain was just a useless load of old stuffing that might as well be chucked in the bin, why teachers forced their pupils to smoke cigarettes, why hairdressers would cut off their customers' legs and why people used to get paid for farting.
-
-
Amazing
- By Offonmyholidays on 14-12-21
-
At the End of Life
- True Stories About How We Die
- By: Lee Gutkind - editor, Francine Prose - introduction, Karen Wolk Feinstein - foreword
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix, Al Kessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern healthcare system has become proficient at staving off death with aggressive interventions. And yet, eventually everyone dies - and although most Americans say they would prefer to die peacefully at home, more than half of all deaths take place in hospitals or health care facilities. At the End of Life tackles this conundrum head on. Featuring 22 compelling personal-medical narratives, the collection explores death, dying, and palliative care, and highlights current features, flaws, and advances in the healthcare system.
-
-
inspiring.
- By Victoria E. on 14-04-19
-
The Doctor Will See You Now
- The Highs and Lows of My Life as an NHS GP
- By: Dr Amir Khan
- Narrated by: Dr Amir Khan
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charting his 15 years working as a GP, from rookie to becoming a partner in one of the UK’s busiest surgeries, Dr Amir Khan’s stories are as much about community and care as they are about blood tests and bodily fluids. Along the way, he introduces us to the patients that have taught him about love, loss and family - from the regulars to the rarities - giving him the most unbelievable highs and crushing lows and often in just 10 minutes.
-
-
Loved it
- By kimberley on 27-11-20
-
Him & Me
- By: Jack Whitehall, Michael Whitehall
- Narrated by: Jack Whitehall, Michael Whitehall
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack and Michael Whitehall perform their laugh-out-loud autobiography Him & Me as a unique dual-voiced comedy audiobook, filled with ad-libs, asides, and comic dialogue to create a uniquely funny listen. Jack and Michael open up the rich and plentiful family lore archives on topics such as Jack’s nanny’s enormous feet, Michael’s lifetime touchline ban from Jack’s prep-school and the Whitehall collection of downright weird and eccentric relatives.
-
-
The most fun you can have with your clothes on!
- By CCWEST on 18-10-13
-
Gas Man
- By: Colin Black
- Narrated by: Colin Black
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join Colin Black on his journey from accidental medical student to HSE and NHS trainee and, finally, consultant paediatric anaesthetist at the largest children’s hospital in Ireland, where any given day could end in laughter or tears - and that’s just the staff. Razor-sharp and forthright, Gas Man is a disarming and frequently hilarious account of life in one of the most fascinating and thrilling professions at medicine’s frontline, where every day is a heady cocktail of severe pressure, poignancy and profound social awkwardness.
-
-
Gas man review
- By Anonymous User on 25-02-22
-
The Fry Chronicles
- An Autobiography
- By: Stephen Fry
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dazzling memoir promises to be a courageously frank, honest and poignant read. It will detail some of Fry's most turbulent and least-well-known years, with writing that will excite you, make you laugh uproariously, move you, inform you, and, above all, surprise you.
-
-
Hours of delighted listening
- By Mary on 21-09-10
-
A Nurse's Story
- My Life in A&E During the Covid Crisis
- By: Louise Curtis, Sarah Johnson
- Narrated by: Louise Curtis
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Working in A&E is a challenging job, but nurse Louise Curtis loves it. She was newly qualified as an advanced clinical practitioner, responsible for life or death decisions about the patients she saw, when the unthinkable happened and the country was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The stress on the NHS was huge and for the first time in her life, the job was going to take a toll on Louise herself.
-
-
Fantastic book from the heart
- By Elle on 22-12-20
-
The Doctor Will See You Now
- By: Max Pemberton
- Narrated by: Alexi Armitage
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The junior doctor...back on the wards. After a year on the streets treating outreach patients, Max Pemberton is back in the relative comfort of hospital. This time running between elderly care and the dementia clinic to A&E and outpatients. No longer inexperienced (Max and his doctor friends can now tell when someone is actually dead), they are on the front line of patient care, for better or worse.
-
-
The Dr will see you now
- By susie on 15-04-21
-
The Secret Life of Bees
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now 14, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the '60s is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for.
-
-
Love it - start to finish!
- By Karen Currie on 04-08-14
-
An Irish Country Family
- An Irish Country Novel
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Doctor Barry Laverty joined Doctor Fingal O’Reilly's practice in the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, he was an intern, working long hours, practicing new medical techniques, falling in love, and learning what is most important in the medical field for a family physician - the bonds of family, friendships, and human kindness.
-
Life, Death and Biscuits
- By: Anthea Allen
- Narrated by: Anthea Allen
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on the diaries of intensive care nurse Anthea Allen, who worked on the front line of one of the largest hospitals in Europe - St George’s in South London - during the peak of the COVID crisis, Life, Death and Biscuits is an extraordinarily powerful memoir. Beyond politics, charts and statistics, Anthea tells the stories of real people, real lives and real hopes and fears in an extraordinary time none of us will ever forget.
-
-
Excellent read/listen
- By Mark Smith on 28-02-22
-
The Missing Pieces of Mum
- By: Sally Herbert
- Narrated by: Julie Maisey
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born out of wedlock in Dublin in 1937, Phyllis grew up in a tough, church-run orphanage. She thought by fulfilling her dream to become a nurse in England, her life might change, but her loveless childhood predisposed a loveless marriage and things began to spiral out of control for her and for her daughter, Sally. Looking for the answers to why both their lives went so spectacularly wrong led Sally to ask questions about the real identity of her mother: 'who was she? Why was she abandoned...I needed to find answers before it was too late.'
-
-
Orphans family found
- By Linda Smith on 08-06-22
-
Catch Your Breath
- The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthetist
- By: Ed Patrick
- Narrated by: Ed Patrick
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ed Patrick is an anaesthetist. Strong drugs for his patients, strong coffee for him. But it's not just sleep-giving for this anaesthetist, as he navigates emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. It's enough to leave anyone feeling numb. But don't worry, there's plenty of laughing gas to be had.
-
-
Hilarious and heart breaking
- By Katherine McIlroy Speed on 26-10-21
Summary
The number one Sunday Times bestseller.
Features 75 stories narrated by their authors.
Curated and edited by Adam Kay (author of multi-million best seller This Is Going to Hurt), Dear NHS features household names telling their personal stories of the health service. Contributors include Paul McCartney, Emilia Clarke, Stephen Fry, Sir Trevor McDonald, Sir Michael Palin, Naomie Harris, Dame Emma Thompson, Joanna Lumley, Miranda Hart, Ed Sheeran, David Tennant, Dame Julie Walters, Emma Watson and many, many more.
The NHS is our single greatest achievement as a country. No matter who you are, no matter what your health needs are, and no matter how much money you have, the NHS is there for you. In Dear NHS, an amazing list of inspirational people come together to share their stories of how the national health service has been there for them and changed their lives in the process. By turns deeply moving, hilarious, hopeful and impassioned, these stories together become a love letter to the NHS and the 1.4 million people who go above and beyond the call of duty every single day - selflessly, generously, putting others before themselves, never more so than now.
They are all heroes, and this book is our way of saying thank you.
This audiobook features readings by: Monica Ali, Pam Ayres, David Baddiel, Mary Beard, William Boyd, Frankie Boyle, Jo Brand, Kevin Bridges, Kathy Burke, Jimmy Carr, Candice Carty-Williams, Lauren Child, Lee Child, Bridget Christie, Emilia Clarke, Rev Richard Coles, Daisy May Cooper, Jilly Cooper, Fearne Cotton, Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal, Victoria Derbyshire, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Anne Fine, Stephen Fry, Professor Green, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Mark Haddon, Matt Haig, The Hairy Bikers, Naomie Harris, Miranda Hart, Victoria Hislop, Nick Hornby, Sali Hughes, Konnie Huq, Marina Hyde, E L James, Jackie Kay, Lorraine Kelly, Marian Keyes, Shappi Khorsandi, Joanna Lumley, Lee Mack, Catherine Mayer, Alexander McCall Smith, Paul McCartney, Sir Trevor McDonald, Caitlin Moran, Kate Mosse, Jojo Moyes, David Nicholls, Sir Michael Palin, Sue Perkins, Katie Piper, Jonathan Ross, Ed Sheeran, Paul Sinha, Frank Skinner, Kate Tempest, David Tennant, Dame Emma Thompson, Sandi Toksvig, Stanley Tucci, KT Tunstall, Dame Julie Walters, Phil Wang, Emma Watson, Mark Watson, Jack Whitehall, Josh Widdicombe, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Greg Wise, Benjamin Zephaniah.
A minimum of £1 from the proceeds received by The Orion Publishing Group from this audiobook will be made available by the publisher to NHS Charities Together. A minimum of £0.05 from the proceeds received by The Orion Publishing Group from this audiobook will be made available by the publisher to the Lullaby Trust.
The Lullaby Trust Limited is a registered charity in the UK with charity number 262191 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
NHS Charities Together is a registered charity in the UK with charity number 1186569 (England and Wales)
More from the same
What listeners say about Dear NHS
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathy O
- 15-07-20
This book should be compulsory for all MPs
This is such a brilliant book. I got it this morning and have been touched by each and every story. I truly believe that every MP from every party should be made to listen to this on repeat until they all can work together to make sure that our NHS is protected in law & financed properly forever.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C. Holloway
- 03-08-20
Thank you Public
As an NHS worker for 20 years, the last 4 months have been exhausting. I was relocated from an outpatient department to intensive care. And now, back in an unrecognisable outpatient setting, I'm feeling the adrenaline wane and the fatigue kick in.
I needed this book. It's been a tonic. NHS workers don't ever expect to be rich, that's not why they do it. Sure, we would like it, but the snippets in this book are what we work for.
Knowing that people appreciate the work we do is worth so much, and for every famous person in this book there are a countless number who have similar experiences and similar gratitude.
The clapping was great, the rainbow signs were great, the discounts were great, but the individual stories are even better.
Dear Public, a heartfelt thank you is worth so so much, and you've all been amazing this last 4 months. Thank you Public. Thank you.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KB2013
- 15-08-20
Not the full book
This isn’t all 100 stories that are in the full printed book. Looking closely I suppose I should have worked that out from the title change and by looking through the list of contributions, but I hadn’t realised so was disappointed to not hear from some of the contributors I’d most wanted to. Book itself is fine - some good stories some boring ones. Nice to support a charity but probably not the greatest book I’ve ever listened to.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michele Roslin
- 13-07-20
tear filled gratitude
a heartfelt tribute to an awesome bunch of selfless dedicated people, makes me proud to be married to an NHS worker
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emma
- 11-07-20
Feel Good and Fabulous
loved this book. packed with interesting and feel good stories all around the NHS. just what we all need during this strange time.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Bolton
- 12-07-20
Great audio book!
If you’re feeling stuck by COVID life and in need of uplifting stories of gratitude, this is a great collection, read by all who wrote their stories.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jayke1981
- 16-11-20
Great audiobook
Great book, and when bought, the proceeds goes to NHS charities. That was the reason why I bought the audiobook, having bought the real book. I discovered straight away with the first story that the audio book would not match with the chapter order of the published book.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chelsea
- 12-09-20
Lovely!
This book is just an absolute delight and I'm so glad I got the audio version over the paper as the stories are told in the authors' voices which really adds to the effect.
The stories are funny, moving, heartbreaking and a great little tribute to the wonderfullness of the NHS.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- coot
- 18-07-20
Our NHS
Loved the laughter and felt the tears. A book with both and balanced in its construction.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robin Moore
- 13-09-20
Amazing book
Highly recommended, my family and I have enjoyed the stories told to us by celebrities. Its makes feel that yes they are human and humbling and you realise that how amazing the NHS are. We thank you ❤️❤️❤️ clapping goes out to you.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jan
- 09-07-20
This Audiobook seems to be missing a LOT!
It's lovely, but it seems to be missing loads of stories. There are supposed to be 100. There are not. Lots of people's stories are missing from this audiobook. is there any way to fix this? I would love to hear them all in their entirety. Thanks.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 01-06-21
Lovely, hilarious and harrowing.
As an ICU nurse, this was an absolute honour to listen to. Thankyou for sharing these stunning stories with us, I was with each of you in every second of listening; laughing, gasping, weeping. We are better together, and the beautiful NHS and these stories, exemplify that wholeheartedly. I would recommend this to ANYONE, because healthcare is humanity! Thankyou, again.