Breathtaking

By: Rachel Clarke

Narrated by: Rachel Clarke

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

"Rachel takes the worst life can throw at us and shows us the beauty in it." (Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt)

Included in Best Books to read in 2021 pieces in the Sunday Times, Guardian, Financial Times, New Stateman, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Evening Standard, The Tablet, Sunday Business Post, Irish Times, iPaper and Stylist Online.

How does it feel to confront a pandemic from the inside, one patient at a time? To bridge the gulf between a perilously unwell patient in quarantine and their distraught family outside? To be uncertain whether the protective equipment you wear fits the science or the size of the government stockpile? To strive your utmost to maintain your humanity even while barricaded behind visors and masks?

Rachel is a palliative care doctor who looked after some of the most gravely unwell patients on the COVID-19 wards of her hospital. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll, she witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity. For all the bleakness and fear, she found that moments that could stop you in your tracks abounded. People who rose to their best, upon facing the worst, as a microbe laid waste to the population.

Her new book, Breathtaking, is an unflinching insider's account of medicine in the time of coronavirus. Drawing on testimony from nursing, acute and intensive care colleagues - as well as, crucially, her patients - Clarke argues that this age of contagion has inspired a profound attentiveness to - and gratitude for - what matters most in life.

©2021 Rachel Clarke (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

If you're wondering whether to turn the page and read it, my message is simple: please do (Michael Rosen)

Powerful, uplifting and even reassuring . . . Clarke's tone is more intimate, much of the book written at night when she couldn't sleep for fear, fury and frustration - the last two she attributes largely to the inadequacies and lies of politicians. Rage lurks beneath many paragraphs as she lambasts the delays in decisions, and the "number theatre" of statistics. You get the sense of someone trying to remain calm and reasoned, often on the verge of being overcome . . . superb (Madeleine Bunting)

Clarke may well be up for another award for this disturbing insider account of the NHS during the pandemic . . . she recognises the power of individual stories (Vanessa Berridge)

A very caring & worthwhile listen.

Rachel is a genuinely caring Dr who shares her and others experiences about COVID 19 in the UK in the first half of 2021.
Having observed from Australia, I remember also feeling shocked at some of the announcements made by the Govt and the events she mentions in 2020.

And to acknowledge those who’ve been let slip through the cracks from non-covid illnesses.
Illnesses they may have lived through if not for the pandemic.
It is inspiring to hear her talk. I hope a third or fourth wave doesn’t arrive.

It made me realise how important the vaccination is and that we owe it to all our healthcare workers and vulnerable citizens to maximise our vaccination rates to protect them all.