Recently retired, Dr Sparrow reveals with refreshing candour and dark humour the most memorable experiences of his career as a rural GP.
From sewing back on a patient’s chiselled finger on a call-out, and the emergency countryside delivery inspired by James Herriot, to suddenly remembering the body left in the back of a Volvo, and a small oversight that blew up the local crematorium, Dr Sparrow spares no blushes.
Have you ever had to decide what to do with an unidentified corpse by a Devonian cowshed when the herd is due in for milking? And how would you react if one of your patients was abducted by aliens?
If you are a GP it seems these are routine matters. From coping with the suicide of a colleague to the unusual whereabouts of a jar of Coleman’s mustard, this is the story of one rural doctor’s often misguided attempts to make sense of the career in which he has unwittingly found himself.
Dr Sparrow’s adventures would be utterly unbelievable were they not 100% true stories. His bedside manner may sometimes leave a little to be desired but, if you’re in dire straits, this doctor will have you in stitches.
Dr Sparrow is back, coping with more bizarre, macabre and hilarious situations. Following his successful debut with Country Doctor, he once more guides us through the daily rounds of the weird and wonderful in his practice on the Devon/Cornwall border.
What would you do if faced with the unsuccessful resuscitation of the wrong patient, being held at gunpoint as a suspected terrorist or confronting a blind man who refuses to stop driving? And what about the little old lady who presents you with a supermarket bag stuffed with £20 notes? Add to this, jets crashing on the runway, fleeting glimpses of the Royal Genitalia and the haunting tale of the suicidal stranger and an abducted child – and you will start to have some idea of the unpredictable life of Dr Sparrow.
The essential book on how not to be a doctor – and how to be a better one.
Drawn from his popular medical columns over the years, John Launer shares fifty of his best-loved essays, covering topics from essentials skills they don’t teach you in medical school to his poignant account of being a patient himself as he received treatment for a life-threatening illness. Taken together, the stories make the case that being a doctor should mean drawing on every aspect of yourself, your interests and your experiences no matter how remote they seem from the medical task at hand.
How Not to Be a Doctor combines humour, candour and the human touch to inform and entertain readers on both ends of the stethoscope.
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We are very excited to see Eleanor Chan @thoroughlyearlymodernellie and Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason @thekannehmasons in conversation at Hatchards @hatchardspiccadilly next week.
Why not join them – and our Chair, musicologist and broadcaster Emily MacGregor @emjmacgregor – for a fascinating evening discussing how music has threaded through human history and artistic self-expression?
In Duet: An Artful History of Music Chan explores the inter-relationships of sound and vision, music and art. Taking us on an exhilarating journey that encompasses a 35,000-year-old flute found in a German cave, Kandinsky`s kaleidoscopic paintings, illuminated manuscripts and haute couture, we discover a long historical interplay of music and art. But what might it mean to to trulyseemusic?
Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason’s memoir, House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons, won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Storytelling Award and her most recent book is To Be Young, Gifted and Black. Through conversations with her extraordinarily gifted family, all classical musicians, Kanneh-Mason explores what it’s like to come of age in these turbulent times, when Black artistic self-expression is so often met with disparagement and abuse online – and offers a hopeful, powerful way through.
Emily MacGregor is a writer, broadcaster, and music historian. Her book While the Music Lasts offers an erudite, lyrical, gently humorous and healing journey in making and participating in music.
Published today in paperback! For readers who love fascinating women’s biographies shot through with literary intrigue of the 20th century.
The Quality of Love is an intimate portrait of the stunning Paget Twins whose lives intersected with friends and lovers: George Orwell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Arthur Koestler and many others.
A beautiful and deeply moving book about sisters who captured the attention of the world, order it from your nearest independent bookshop.
A Splintering UK Book Tour 🧡📕
Dur e Aziz Amna will be returning to the UK! 🇬🇧
We are excited to announce the stops on her UK book tour. We have such amazing events lined up, we hope to see you there 🥳
We will be sharing ticket links in our stories, you can also head to each venue’s website to find more about ticket information🎟️
#asplintering #literaryfiction #UK #books #bookstagram
You can catch @felicityspector and @oliahercules at the @burylitfestival on October 12th 🥳🙌🥳
Duckworth author Eleanor Chan @thoroughlyearlymodernellie will be in conversation with Kate Kennedy @drkatekennedy in Oxford this month to celebrate the launch of the startingly original Duet: An Artful History of Music
Their discussion will grapple with how throughout human history we have always endeavoured to *see* music and promises an unforgettable journey through sound and vision.
Eleanor Chan is a classically trained musician, art historian and BBC Next Generation Thinker.
Biographer and broadcaster Kate Kennedy is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and Associate Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-writing. She has published widely on twentieth century music and literatureand is a regular presenter on history and culture for the BBC.
In association with Music at Oxford: @music_at_oxford
Tickets on sale now!
We’re honoured to announce #InGreen by @louis.d.hall has been longlisted for the @saltirebookawards.
Seeking a salve for his existential apprehensions and inspired by Don Quixote, Louis’ journey on horseback reconnects him with wild places, taking readers along old paths and ancient villages across Europe. From rural Scotland to the Galician Coast, Louis discovers more than he bargained for.
‘A classic adventure narrative in the vein of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Robert Louis Stevenson... life-changing’ @calflyn author of #IslandsOfAbandonment
And some more incredible stories... 🚂👏
#PublicationDay #TheUntoldRailwayStories #RailwayHistory #TrainTravel #NewBook
Here are just some of the amazing stories you can find in our latest publication, The Untold Railway Stories…. 🚞📚
#PublicationDay #TheUntoldRailwayStories #RailwayHistory #TrainTravel #NewBook
✨🚂 Happy Publication Day! 🚂✨
We’re thrilled to celebrate the release of The Untold Railway Stories, a compendium of fascinating and evocative new writing on railway travel and history.
Telling of little known journeys and uncovered histories on railway routes around the world - from the UK, Europe and Africa to North America, the Middle East and Asia.
From Myanmar`s highlands to the British Pennines, from slow travel between coffee plantations in Borneo to a cross-continent odyssey on African railways, from the pioneers of the American West to European trains in war, this is a new prism through which to explore human lives, and global landscapes, politics and history.
The Untold Railway Stories is a testament to both the joy and impact of train travel - to the ambition and ingenuity, and also to destruction and sacrifice within its history - and is published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of first passenger railway line.
📖 Out now — climb aboard!
#PublicationDay #TheUntoldRailwayStories #RailwayHistory #TrainTravel #NewBook
Author @dureazizamna has landed in the UK to celebrate her brilliant new novel A Splintering! 🙌
Yesterday we had the best time visiting bookshops around London on a whirlwind tour, and you can now find signed copies at 📚
📍 Waterstones Richmond
📍 Waterstones Trafalgar Square
📍 Foyles Charing Cross
We also made a stop at the BBC for a very exciting interview for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club 🎙️ — keep your ears peeled for that coming soon! 💛
#ASplintering #DurEazizAmna #BookTour #SignedCopies #BBC #Radio2BookClub #Bookstagram #AuthorTour #Bookish
An utterly inspiring talk @frontlineclub about the Afghan women judges who fled the Taliban and those they left behind. Karen Bartlett interviews Fawzia Amini and Anisa Dhanji about their struggle to save these women and the work still left to do.
The full story: Afghanistan appointed its first woman judge in 1969. In the intervening years, the status and safety of Afghan women has been shockingly volatile. The late 70s saw the rise of the mujahedeen when women’s rights were eroded, followed by a period of political instability in the late 80s when female judges had the chance to work again. The Taliban seized power in the mid-90s and imposed a strict Islamic regime under which women suffered unspeakable brutality. The aftermath of 9/11 ushered in a new democratic government and in the following two decades, Afghan women obtained legal degrees, became judges and set out to transform their country - tackling corruption, and reducing horrifying levels of violence against women and children. These educated and powerful women led the mission to build a modern democracy that respected the rule of law and human rights. However, the catastrophic withdrawal of Western forces in August 2021 placed the women judges of Afghanistan in mortal danger.
Afghan women judges symbolised everything the Taliban despised and feared. Without help, the judges knew the Taliban would hunt them down and kill them. This is a remarkable, never-before-told account of how a global network of female judges created a support group, working round-the-clock to help many Afghan women judges and their families escape. The heart-stopping stories of their journeys and the shocking fates of those unable to get out are documented by the best-selling veteran journalist, Karen Bartlett. She had unique access to many of the women involved, including those in exile and the judges still trapped in Afghanistan, as well as the women judges from other parts of the world who were vital to the escape effort.
Karen Bartlett’s book The Escape from Kabul is a searing testimony to the extraordinary power of women – those trapped in the most hostile of conditions and those desperately trying to help them.
You can read a fabulous extract from A Splintering by @dureamna on @wearebookanista! Here is a teaser for you...
