The Blurb:
‘General practice is the great unknown. We stand on the cusp of the beyond. Science takes us only so far, then the maps stop in the grey areas of intuition, imagination and feelings: here be dragons. Lurching from heart-breaking tragedy to high farce, we are the Renaissance men and women of medicine; our art is intangible. Anything can walk through our door…’
Family doctor, Irishman, musician, award-winning author, anarchist and recovering morphine addict, Liam became a columnist for the BMJ in 1994. He went on to write for many major publications, winning a series of prestigious awards; in 2005, he was the first doctor to win Columnist of the Year in the Periodical Publishers Association awards.
The book contains a selection of Liam’s best work, from his columns, blogs and short stories. Brilliantly funny, glittering with literary allusion and darkly wicked humour, this book is much more than a collection of stand-alone anecdotes and whimsical reflections, rather a compelling chronicle of the daily struggles – and personal costs – of a doctor at the coalface.
Are You The F**king Doctor? was published by Dalzell Press on 8th November 2018. You can buy it from Waterstones, Amazon UK and Amazon US.
My Review:
This is an unusual book for me to be reading as it is non fiction, based on the author's real life experiences as a GP, although often with a certain degree of embellishment added!
The book is presented as a collection of articles and short stories Dr Farrell has written for various medical journals. I think the earliest one is 1994, whilst the most recent pieces were written last year. The articles are loosely grouped together by subject and these form the chapters. If you don't have time to read this straight through, it's an ideal book to pick up for a wee while and then come back to later, as the articles are short.
The articles tell stories from Dr Farrell's GP consulting room. But with embellishments! He adds humour, a healthy dose of cynicism and often complete surrealism to each encounter. I smiled lots, laughed often and occasionally (possibly more than occasionally but don't tell anyone 😂) had a puzzled look on my face.
Some of the titles of the pieces are genius. My favourite example is a very funny article about a turd, entitled 'Deeply Moving'. The same short piece mentions PG Wodehouse, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, and quotes from Shakespeare. You can maybe see why I said things can get a bit surreal. Another piece, about the blood thinning drug Warfarin, consists of a conversation between the good doctor and Count Dracula.
We meet some of the patients who regularly visit the practice with various ailments. My favourite was Joe, a hypochondriac who thinks he has everything going, is easily led by other people and the media and confused by information on the internet. He is a very frequent visitor to the surgery and his exchanges with the doctor are hilarious. But I suspect Joe is an amalgamation of characters who've crossed the GP's path - especially as he seems to appear in articles after the one which mentions his death!
But the humour and craziness hide serious points. I was really struck about the variety of complaints, and how knowledgeable a practice doctor needs to be - it's in the name, of course, "General" Practictioner. But each patient comes in expecting the doctor to be an expert in there particular problem, and then feeling let down when he's not. I also noted the ridiculous time constraints GPs work with, having just 7 to 15 minutes per patient.
It would seem that GPs also have to act as friend, counsellor, relationship mediator, shoulder to cry on. And this, along with increased administration, has a cost. For the author , it was a morphine dependency and this is one of the few sections in the book with no humour, but with searing honesty. He also talks plainly about the Troubles and also the abortion laws in Ireland.
This was a really good read. I think GPs are underrated and often complained about, so it was great to read accounts of how it is for them. The humour makes it an easier read, and the majority of medical terms are explained. But it's also serious, touching and affecting in places. It will make you laugh, although I should mention that bodily fluids feature heavily - you have been warned! 😂 Entertaining, interesting, well worth a read, and I hope Dr Farrell writes more in the future.
The Author:
Dr Liam Farrell is from Rostrevor, Co Down, Ireland. He was a family doctor in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, for 20 years, and is an award-winning writer and a seasoned broadcaster. He is married to Brid, and has three children Jack, Katie, and Grace.
He was a columnist for the British Medical Journal for 20 years and currently writes for GP, the leading newspaper for general practitioners in the UK. He has also been a columnist for the Lancet, the Journal of General Practice, the Belfast Telegraph and the Irish News. He wrote the entry on ‘Sex’ for The Oxford Companion to the Body.
On Twitter he curates #Irishmed, a weekly tweetchat on all things medical, which has a global following. He also co-curates #WritersWise, a regular tweetchat for writers, with novelist Sharon Thompson. He was the medical columnist for the BBC Radio Ulster Evening Extra 1996-98; presented the series Health-Check for Ulster TV in 2002, and was medical consultant for both series of Country Practice in 2000 and 2002 for BBC Northern Ireland.
His awards include Columnist of the Year at Irish Medical Media Awards 2003, Periodical Publishers Association of Great Britain 2006 and Medical Journalist’s Society, London 2011, and Advancing Health through Media at the Zenith Global Healthcare Awards 2018.He was shortlisted for the Michael McLaverty Short Story Competition in 2008.
You can find Liam's website here, or follow him on Twitter using the handle @DrLFarrell.
Huge thanks for the Blog Tour support Suze x
ReplyDeleteSo delighted to be involved. x
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