Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas

By: Adam Kay

Narrated by: Adam Kay

Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

The number one Sunday Times best seller.

Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas is a short gift book of festive diaries from the author of multi-million-copy bestseller This is Going to Hurt.

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. 

©2019 Adam Kay (P)2019 Macmillan Digital Audio

Sooooo Negative !!!

I don’t know what I was thinking!! Is this guy ever happy! Happy it’s over!

ER Dumping and Turkeybone in a Trachea?

Truly a brief and ribald rant by Adam Kay. Audible experience enticed laughter in many en route to an architectural paradise by the sea. Kayes’ style imparts a unique view and classification of the morose nature of holidays when experienced through the eyes of medical professionals. Learned what “G-y” dumping is and how “Turkeybone” in a trachea is a quotidian occurrence on Satan’s merry go round (aka “The ER”).

“Would you believe there’s a medical term specifically and exclusively for a mass of undigested sharon fruit in an intestine? No wonder medical school takes so long, learning all this s...”
---Adam Kay

There is a rationale why many healthcare workers choose to be purposely absent from the ER during the holidays. And their are those who live for the “rush” of the incoming patients whose conditions are further stressed by environmental factors, food and unresolved familial conflicts creating the ideal recipe for another “hell” round in the ER. Adam Kay heals naturally with humor and helps us to understand the meritorious and somber realities of holidays.

Hilarious

If you work in healthcare this book is for you. Read his first one too. He tells the humorous and disgusting side of medicine.

Gotta love health staff

Reminder of the difficulties our health work force face encapsulated in a humorous personal story.

Love it!!

Just as good as his first book. I really wish it was longer. Hoping he writes some more!!

Finally! Someone is telling our stories!

As a nurse who has worked almost every Christmas Day and New Years Eve for the past 10 or so years, listening to this has been therapeutic. I've laughed, I've cried, and (most importantly) I empathized with Adam and his struggle to survive the holidays working in a hospital. Thank you for finally telling our stories and please keep up all the good work!

Hilarious and heartbreaking

Adam Kay is a marvelous humorist with a wicked sense of humor. Some of his stories are lovely and some are disgusting, but they are all funny. Clearly, he loves medicine and the British National Health Service.

Wow

I know this book only deals with cases he remembers… but makes me happy for our (US) healthcare. The references to God- should have left out - I get that it’s your book and your story… but is off putting. As a medical professional I enjoyed the story. Glad you decided to write while medicine was in your family- it really sounded like it was not in your heart. But I bought both books!

Delightful

Charming read about the poor souls in NHS working over the Christmas holidays. Spicy language, hilarious medical situations and so British. A true find. Problem was it was too short!

There is no hope without loss

A funny, sad, joyful, frustrating (i.e. HUMAN) romp through the Christmases most of us will never have to endure or hope to enjoy. Yet another glimpse of human experiences that are at once foreign and universal. Throughly enjoyable.

great book even if it's only half a pint, not full

I loved the first book, this ones great but feeling somewhat shortchanged as it's only half the length of the first book read on audible.

shame

first book was fantastic, loved it and was so excited for this to come out. so disappointed how short it was. not worth 1 audible credit.

Bloody loved it!

Absolutely loved ‘This is Going to Hurt’ and wondered if a second book could live up to it ... but it really did. I loved it. An emotional rollercoaster that was so thoughtfully, addictively (couldn’t stop listening) and humorously written. Adam Kay is an all round genius. Thank you to all the NHS staff working around Christmas.

Extra tales from Kay with a festive flavour

Extra tales from Kay with a festive flavour, as laugh-out-loud as ever.

Kay mentions in this that some of the stories were intended to be included in 'This is Going to Hurt', and they would have made a perfect 'Christmas' chapter in his first 'behind the NHS curtain' book.

This makes a good little stocking filler though, a second glimpse at the perennially exhausting, sometimes hilarious and often heartbreaking life of a doctor.

Kay takes us through twenty five stories from his time in the NHS. I ran a ParkRun while listening to this and ended up snorting with laughter as I ran, it was impossible not to. Then a few minutes later I had a lump in my throat. Not often that such extremes happen so smoothly.

The funny stories are right up there with some of the most outrageous and hilarious I've ever heard. Comic gold. And Kay tells them beautifully, a real literary talent.

He also makes a very entertaining narrator, reading his own work on the audiobook. It was only 2 hours long, a short read either on paper or to listen to, but it's one I would definitely listen to annually near Christmas, a quick giggle for the season.

These stories deserve sharing (and no identities are uncovered, for those embarrassing tales!), there are some here that might affect those in similar situations (regarding IVF, miscarriage, death), and of course Kay reminds us more than once of the hard-working souls who prop up our health service, and how much they give up at this time of year to keep us healthy.

Just as entertaining as his first, a slim edition but a great gift idea.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.

Love love love it

Adam Kay is a loss to the NHS, however he is an immense writer and this book does not disappoint.
Who knew that Mars bar wrappers were contraception......
I look forward to his next literary offering 😂

Hes done it again !

I loved the 1st book and enjoyed this just as much... the stories are hilarious and it really does make you think about how hard the NHS all work over Christmas... cant wait for the tv series !

Funny as (I’ll let you guess what)

Amazing, funny, laugh out loud! Definitely worth a listen or read. Now I feel very festive.

Another great book

The third Adam Kay book I’ve listened to. Really enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to everyone; whether you’re an NHS professional or not.

Adam - Keep up the good work.

Relatable and Funny

If you work in the NHS you will definitely relate to some of these tales and laugh out loud.

A short but enjoyable listen.

As funny as the first

Great story teller. Humane and humble. Sorry the NHS lost him but get why.
Thank you for telling your story.