Bedside Stories follows Dr Michael Foxton on his exhausting journey from medical student, through years with no sleep as a junior doctor, and on into psychiatry. In prose that crackles with dark humour and authentic energy, he paints an unforgettable portrait of the hellish life of the junior doctor: the terror of being left alone with a patient on the first day; wrestling drunks at 3am in AE (where 'the worst possible outcome of every risk you ever took is prominently on display'); persuading schizophrenics to take their medication; suffering at the hands of a tyrannical registrar; battling with alternative therapists; the dread fear of accidentally killing someone; and the struggle, despite everything, to remain sane and friendly. Dr Foxton started out with dreams of being like Dirk Bogarde in Doctor in the House, but the reality, he discovered, was quite different. Hilarious, moving and occasionally alarming, Bedside Stories is set to establish itself as a classic account of what life as a new doctor is really like.

Author Biography

Michael Foxton is a junior doctor in the NHS and writes a regular column about his job for the Guardian. Michael Foxton is a pseudonym.