This isn't my usual kind of read, but I'm really glad I took the time on it. It's a poignant and moving look at the personal story of someone who came through COVID battered and bruised, yet standing. It's a story of personal resilience, but also of grief at losing things you had previously taken for granted and what a toll a slow recovery can take on your mental health. It's also a testimony to the NHS staff who worked under such trying circumstances to keep as many as they could alive.

“Why did these strangers try so hard
to keep me alive?
It’s a kindness I can hardly grasp.”

Along with the personal reflections, this is also a book that touches on the needless loss of life caused by many of the political decisions made at the time. It frames those decisions around the personal loss of health and in many cases life that so many felt. It's a thoughtful, poignant reminder along with a deeply personal tale.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

I adored this profound book by Michael Rosen about when he was "poorly" with Covid. Such an authentic voice and was so moved by his journey. What really touched my heart was the diary kept by the many people who cared for him whilst he spent 48 days in the ICU department. It is essentially a store of love, care and kindness

"Why did these strangers try so hard to keep me alive? It's a kindness I can hardly grasp. The words tell me they wanted me to survive"

"She showed me what quiet, real, enduring love means and how vitally important it is these difficult times"

"And I realised she was holding me up, propping me up with words. All that care and belief and love keeping me in the world"

Anything written by Michael Rosen is always a special read, but this one is simply astonishing. Poignant and heartachingly beautiful, I honestly can’t recommend this book highly enough. I absolutely adored it!

I'm sorry but this book was not for me, much as I love Michael Rosen's work with children and poetry in general. Maybe I read this this at the wrong time (after the pandemic had settled down to a dull, less virulent roar) but I found this difficult to read because of a rather sentimental take on the pandemic and the NHS - understandable, I'm sure, for someone who has overcome the worst of the disease by the skin of his teeth. I'm sure it is heresy to suggest such a thing. But I wish Michael well in his continuing recovery and look forward to his writing in the future.

This stunned me. Even though I’ve experienced the pandemic and not underestimated anything. This book was so beautifully written and so raw. A must read.

A book by Michael Rosen. Who would not enjoy that?

I, for one, enjoyed it. It was an odd collections of tales and observations, thought provoking, sad and happy at various times.

It isn't necessarily the sort of book I would have read had the author been unknown to me, but I am glad that he was and I did.

Who could fail to be touched by this diary of Michael Rosen's Covid experience? It is a summation of everything that is both terrible and heart warming about the situation and the man himself, who still manages to exude humanity, love and humour in the darkest of times. A national treasure.

An emotional and utterly necessary book from such a beloved author. I loved the way that Michael Rosen's story was pieced together. The contributions from NHS staff, family, friends and Michael himself demonstrate what a collaborative effort the battle against COVID has been for us all. Thank you.

I have long admired Michael Rosen and followed his illness and recovery through the posts shared by his family on Twitter. This was an emotional memoir full of gratitude for our wonderful NHS. Charting the early days of his illness, through to his rehab and return home, Rosen shares the difficulties he has faced through his own thoughts, messages from his family and the diary those who cared for him kept in his notes.

This is an excellent read, one I certainly will not forget in a hurry. It combines diary entries and prose among other entries, which were included in a notebook beside Michael Rosen's bed as he struggled to recover from Corona Virus. While so many flouted the rules and refuse to Stay Home, Michael and so many others, whose struggles remain undocumented, suffered highs and lows in their journey to recovery. This is a beautiful book, showing such caring and love. It should that in our times of sickness and when we're at our lowest, we are never alone.

in the UK as he’s a beloved children’s poet. He was in a medically induced coma for six weeks and had a tracheostomy tube. His chances of survival were only about 50/50, and once he did finally come around he had a long recovery process ahead of him. It was his third time learning to walk – he was hit by a car at age 17. Letters from the medical professionals who looked after him in intensive care (most of whom were specialists in other areas but stepped up during the pandemic) helped him to piece together the story of his hospitalization and are reproduced here, as are his wife’s updates to family and friends.

The rest of the book is composed of Rosen’s poems, which are … okay. I didn’t grow up with his children’s stuff (We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, etc.), so I don’t have a nostalgic love of his style and for the most part found it obvious and artless: “I am not sure I am me. / I can’t see as I used to see. / I can’t hear as I used to hear. / My legs feel like cardboard tubes, / filled with porridge.” The best example of his verse is “These Are the Hands,” which he wrote for the 60th anniversary of the NHS and is appended here. Illustrations by Chris Riddell. (2.5 stars)

A different perspective on the pandemic that has affected us all over the last year. It's a real insight into life as a COVID patient and really made me think. Highly recommended.

Many Different Kinds of Love is an honest and emotive account of having covid early in the pandemic. It is also an insight into the kind of people who chose to dedicate their time to looking afrer people with Covid even if there usual job was somewhat different.

I liked how open and honest the author was with regard to sharing his anger and frustrations and setbacks.

It was a refreshing read despite still being in the midst of the pandemic and the author clearly has great strength.

Covid has been in the headlines for well over a year now and much has been said in the media about the virus and its effects over this time.
However, this book is a real human insight into this terrible virus which very nearly took away a National Treasure but didn’t – ‘hurrah’ !
It takes the form of Michael Rosen’s personal recollections of the time and is also informed by the diary that was kept and filed in by the dedicated staff who cared for him at Whittington Hospital.
It encompasses love, loss hope., tireless dedication and also a good amount of humour. It gives enormous insight into the effects of such an invasive virus and the huge efforts it takes to recover, both physically and mentally, from it.
An essential account of this crazy time.

What a remarkable account of Michael’s journey, battling with coronavirus. It shows how dedicated NHS staff are in caring for their patients. It has been an horrendous time for all, but thankfully Michael has come through the worst, although his return to full health is still ongoing. I’m grateful for the opportunity to read this well written, emotional and detailed story and wish Michael and staff all the best.

An intensely moving account of Michael Rosen's illness, and the beginnings of his recovery from covid.
Hearing that Michael had contracted covid felt like a body blow, and like many people I anxiously awaited news, following the tweets from his partner. As a voice on the radio, and the author of so many books which make up the fabric of our lives, his illness felt personal.
I found the diary entries written by those who looked after him particularly emotional to read - they were so intimate and caring, and yet they spoke for the whole country too. And maybe that summarises what this book does - it is a personal account of illness, but it also speaks for our collective experience of loss, and the anger that so many of us feel, too.
Thank you, Michael Rosen.

What a wonderfully poignant book that I read within a few days. It is frank, honest and raw, this book really brings it home to you just how serious this dreaded virus is.

I was particularly moved to tears during the section that covered Michael’s time in an induced coma. The love care and support of the NHS staff taking care of him was incredibly humbling and gave me a sense of pride for our healthcare heroes. This book pulled at my emotions.

Notably the unwavering love and support of his wife Emma and family was remarkable as one would only imagine and very clearly reciprocated by Michael himself. It is a beautiful memoir of thanks for the NHS heroes, it is 224 pages filled with hope, kindness and love which in addition has been beautifully illustrated by Chris Riddel.

It is certainly a book that has left a mark on me and one I shall recommend for sometime.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ebury Press for the advanced reader copy in return for my honest review.

I don’t know where to start with this book.

Poetry brings up all sorts of emotions, and this book certainly did. Michael Rosen knows death - his mother “ I watched my mother die. She sat up in bed, coughed, a nurse jumped forward, caught something that came out of her mouth and she fell back against the pillows”, his son, “ I went into my son’s room early one morning to tell him that I was off out but he was still and cold and didn’t hear me ... They asked me to feel for his pulse. There wasn’t any.“.

But, like many, he didn’t really think of facing it himself. Yet at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, he caught it. Unaware of most of what went on whilst he was in a coma, the start of the book is based on the messages from his wife and the notes his caring medical staff wrote in a book, ready for his recovery. And whilst he came out of his, coma, he describes the difficulties he has faced in his recover - accepting his mortality, being one: “I remember going to see the doctor about a spot on my leg: Me: I’ve got a spot on my leg. Doctor: What do you think it is? Me: Skin cancer? Doctor: It’s more serious than that. Me: Really? Doctor: It’s old age.“. However, he is clearly angry about how the pandemic was managed: “ My mind goes back to when I got ill. If the government had done what the WHO suggested, I wonder, perhaps these things wouldn’t have happened to me, nor to the thousands of others like me, nor to the thousands who’ve died”; and continues to be managed: “ They’ve announced that schools will be reopening in September. There must be evidence coming in that the Coronavirus only travels as far as the school gates, gets sulky, turns round and hurries off”.

But this isn’t an angry book. It is sad and funny and ever so poignant. It is a beautiful book.

I have seen that you can buy signed copies of this book through a mainstream bookshop and I will be looking to get a copy - I want a hard copy to read again and again, and I want a signed copy because Michael Rosen is a (to use that sometimes overused word), a National Treasure.

This made me cry on multiple occasions. A patchwork of pieces that fit together to recreate Michael Rosen's time in hospital with COVID and his recovery. This is beautiful. The diary/log of people who cared for Michael during his time in ICU in a coma was particularly touching. I don't really have the words to describe how this affected me. It feels like this is the book that schools should use to teach about this time when it becomes history.

This book is an absolute joy.

I'm a huge fan of Michael Rosen and have followed his recent Coronavirus health battle via his family's messages on Twitter. I'm so relieved he recovered but is now, sadly, having to deal with its long-term effects.

This book is glorious. I've already purchased a couple of copies for family, including my mum who had her own big health battle a few years ago - and to which we are extremely thankful to the NHS for her recovery.

This is a love letter to the NHS. It starts with Michael's health deteriorating and his very close call, then we get to hear the nurses and other NHS staff through their daily diary they kept for him while he was in a coma. We then join Michael through his battle to get his health back on track. It's such a beautifully-told, and at times funny, journey and I'm so grateful to Michael for creating this book and sharing it with the world.

We are so lucky to have the NHS.