This was a real eye opener. We hear about front line nursing, we see news reports, but this is a personal account showing us what it is like for individuals, how the nurses felt, what they had to cope with. The frequent references as time went on to nurses from Europe leaving and returning to their homeland highlight for me the grim and shocking reality of Brexit, how these nurses, who were at home in the NHS, are treated as different and unappreciated despite the huge role they played during one of the most difficult times in history. What a genuine and lovely nurse we see in Anthea and how supportive to her team. I'd be happy as a parent if she was manager to one of my children starting out in their career. The simple idea of asking for treats for the nurses escalated in such a way as to involve so many people, and to read the emails kept the public involved. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read this important book - may we never forget what the nurses in the NHS do for us, and let's hope that finally they can be rewarded as they should be. #netgalley #lifedeathandbiscuits

What a sensational, traumatic and heartbreaking book this has been to read.
I have a friend who works in the same position in a hospital and I have heard first hand about the horror and heartbreak that the staff endured every day for the last 2 years. They are a true inspiration.
This book gives you the raw, real and revealing life of a hospital worker in the pandemic.
5 star

A good read about a critical care nurse's experiences during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

After more than 20 years working as a critical care nurse, Anthea Allen thought she'd seen it all.
Then Coronavirus happened. This book documents her thoughts and experiences. Full on. She tells exactly what it was like through a series of emails which recount her experiences.

She had been a nurse for 25 years, 23 of them a critical care nurse. This is a sort of diary-like account, made up of dated emails that were originally to friends and family etc. It's a fast and informative, and eye-opening read-just a few repetitive statements spoiled it a bit for me. Mentioning certain things repeatedly is OK in a regular email update/blog-but when this is all stitched together in a book, it doesn't work as well. It's fine except for that; the repetition.

It's not all COVID-there's still the other kinds of emergencies that they have to deal with alongside.
Medical memoirs are amongst my favourite genres, and this is a good read.

What an extraordinary team ICU nurses are! Above and beyond in the time of COVID doesn’t even begin to describe what they went through and what they achieved in saving their patients - not just saving them, but giving them true compassion and love, days after day, week after week and month after month. And for those they couldn’t save, making sure that they had the best death that these wonderful people could manage to give them. Yes, the diary became a little repetitive, and it feels so mean to say that, but there are only so many ways to describe hell, and Anthea Allen used them all, sometimes more than once. Her personal asides were illuminating and an excellent foil for the endless trials of running an overworked and overcrowded ICU.

This book came about as the result of an initial email to friends and neighbours, asking for biscuits for the Critical Care nurses. Over time, it became a weekly email to an increasingly wider group, detailing what it was like in the hospital during the pandemic. As somewhat of an outsider (I worked as admin in the NHS pre-pandemic, and spent time visiting family in hospital during the pandemic), I had a basic idea of what it must be like. And this confirmed that, as well as showing the incredible team work and effort that nurses go to to care for their patients. Don’t get me wrong, I do think they are remarkably caring and hard working.

But.

At times, this felt like it was saying nurses were the only thing - it sometimes glossed over the knowledge and expertise that doctors and consultants have. Is it different knowledge to that of nurses? I’m sure it is. But it’s no less valuable for that. This felt at times like it was doing a disservice to doctors and consultants. Especially when there were these two quotes that really struck me as disrespectful:

“It feels to us old ones that they are still children, and the odd one comes with attitude and immaturity. One doctor - young and pretty - seems to have just tumbled out of boarding school and med school, and has much to learn about life, people and medicine. She fainted after two hours in the Covid area. Nurses raised their eyebrows. We are tough and strong and made of a different fabric.”
—Judging much? What if she was unwell?

Or how about “the best moment this week was when I asked a consultant to help clean a patient who had profuse diarrhoea in the extreme. [...] The consultant was gagging despite the FFP3 mask and visor, Burt we jokingly said we assessed her as competent to clean up poo and laughed at her poor constitution.”
—Well I bet that made her feel SO much better...

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Like another reviewer, I have mixed feelings about this book, which is why it’s got 3 stars rather than 4.

This was a heartbreaking read but beautifully written. It’s honest and exudes hope and light.
Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but I really enjoyed the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC copy in exchange for my review.

This is a memoir based on the diaries of intensive care nurse Anthea Allen, who worked on the front line of St. George’s hospital in South London during the peak of the Covid crisis.

I struggled with this book a little bit. It is definitely an interesting read and it gave us an in depth look into the life of a critical care nurse on the frontline of the Coronavirus pandemic and the first few chapters had me intrigued. Some of the recounted events were heartbreaking, she spoke of the patients they lost and those they managed to save, as well as how cutbacks and budgets meant they didn’t have the resources, beds or staff needed. I like how she spoke of the camaraderie of the staff and how the pandemic brought them all together, almost like one big family. As this book was wrote from Anthea’s emails which she used to document this period, i understand that a lot of things will be repeated such as how the nurses are incredible and heroes etc. However about half way through the book I found it to became too repetitive, it was far too long and I quickly lost all interest in reading it and it became almost a chore just to finish it.

I think this would definitely be a good book for years to come to show future generations the extent and impact of the coronavirus and despite my opinion of this book, I have huge respect and admiration for Anthea and all of the NHS staff that played their part in the fight against the coronavirus. These are the people that went above and beyond to ensure people had the best care possible and they should be recognised for their efforts during such a difficult time.

Anthem Allen is an ICU critical care nurse. This book takes you through the journey our nurses are having to do day in day out throughout this pandemic. All I can say is a huge thank you to all staff working tirelessly to help others

Thank you netgalley for this ARC

I didn’t finish this book as I found it went on too long and was repetitive.
It was told from the point of view of a critical care nurse during the corona virus pandemic.
She emailed family and friends asking for donations for the nurses at the hospital she worked in and got inundated with biscuits, cake and food.
I am grateful to nurses like Anthea and her colleagues who did an amazing job doing so much more than their job.
The first few chapters were interesting and offered me an insight into life at the hospitals during the pandemic but after that it lacked content and just didn’t make me want to read on.

An honest and raw account of what it was like working during through Covid 19 - daughter in tow due to the massive shortage in NHS workers who had the skills and ability to deliver the critical care covid 19 patients needed so much, alongside the 'normal' patients in ICU. Anthea doesn't pull any punches here and really tells it how it was during those hard (and continued) months in our strange history. The daughter of two NHS workers, this was always going to pique my interests and I have so much utter respect for the tired, amazing NHS workers who continued to work hard as the rest of the world had to stay home. It goes to show how some of the people who provided thanks through support, gifts, cards, words etc really can make a difference to these hard workers who are human too. I would encourage any antivaxxer to read this and understand the impact this horrendous virus has had on the world and on our NHS. In fact, I'd encourage anyone to read this and understand that our NHS is truly full of everyday unsung heroes. 5* from me for an honest, yet at times, difficult read. Thank you for telling your story Anthea.

This has been a hard, heart-breaking book to read. Written from the heart, with superb insight as to what was happening in our hospitals, much of which us public were unaware of. Thank you Anthea and well done to all in the NHS.

Totally sympathetic to the nurses cause, and in total awe of the job they have carried out during the pandemic - which this book brought to home. I understand that they were on the frontline and they dealt with traumatic events on an hourly basis - stuff that the general public didn't know about in their wildest imaginations. An unprecedented event. However, I must say that I found it hard to follow, and a little disjointed in places. However, obviously the author is not a writer, so this is their first experience of writing a book and it's written straight from the heart which makes it a truthful and harrowing read at times. . I think it's more about the content and the story it is telling more than anything else.

This is such a good read and such an insightful read. Most of us lived through, and remain living through covid witnessing it on television, social media and literature, without having to witness it or care for people suffering from it. I remember thinking at the time how difficult it must have been but this book really hit it home fo rme and left me feeling both inspired and incredibly sad. It also left me feeling very proud of the NHS, not necessarily the instituion itself but for the people who work for, some of who genuinely gave their lives for it. A read that everyone should definitely read.

I could not stop reading this book the writing style really drew you in. As someone who has gone through the pandemic relatively unscathed, very lucky I know, this book really opened my eyes to what so many people went through. The author really showed how hard it was to work for the NHS during an incredibly difficult time-the sacrifices they made,the tears they cried for their patients and the victories when patients left hospital. Carefully written,this personal memoir leaves you in no doubt what a difficult job they all had. I think this is a must read for everyone-the impact the pandemic has had and still has today cannot be underestimated and this will give people a greater understanding.

I did enjoy this book, it highlights the phenomenal job being done by nurses in Covid times and beyond.
I cannot truly imagine the sheer exhaustion they felt.
The book is very interesting but at times feels somewhat repetitive, I felt I’d already read bits as they were repeated.

This excellent book filled a gap for me between the screech of ambulances rushing past our house, located on the main road to one of the country's largest hospitals, and the calm order when I took my mother for routine injections. What was happening down the 'Covid corridor' sealed from the rest of the hospital?
Anthea Allen is a critical care nurse with 23 years experience. She takes us behind the scenes to the Covid wards in St George', Tooting, as they expanded, extended and became tightly packed the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 and the second wave in the winter of 2020/21.
She describes with compassion and humour how she trained and supported nurses from other departments, picked her way through densely packed beds and lifesaving equipment, and improvised. She explains why nurses need biscuits, clocking up many miles a day in steps between wards, turning patients, searching for vital equipment, and taking a brief comfort break in a twelve hour shift to grab some calories.
Conditions were far from perfect, yet at no point was the respect for human dignity lost. The lengths nurses went to to rig up mobile phones so that patients could see their loved ones is heart rending and heart warming at the same time.
In spite of the desperate situation, the fatigue, the confusion, and the sheer overwhelming 'otherness' of the pandemic, this is an optimistic book. Profound thanks to Anthea and her colleagues for their incredible work. My admiration goes to Anthea for capturing daily events in her email diary, and pulling together this inspirational and warmly human book.

This book was informative, heartbreaking and also surprisingly heart warming too. It means so much to read about the high quality care given to people at the end of life, particularly during the pandemic when so many were alone and afraid.
This book is written in a format of a series of weekly emails sent by a senior ICU nurse which makes reading somewhat repetitive but also highlights the very repetitive nature of the peaks and troughs of the pandemic itself and the experience these nurses and other hospital staff have to endure. I found myself welling up and laughing at various points so this book does a good job of bringing empathy and realism to the serious life and death topics.
I think this is an important read for everyone, particularly as we increasingly head towards a more ‘normal’ way of life again. It is important to remember the sacrifices and amazing things that NHS staff and hospitals have done over the past two years and continue to do despite lack of funding and support.
This is an excellent read and really shows a different side of the pandemic than many of us experienced.

Anthea tells the story of working in ITU throughout the pandemic and the support she managed to garner from friends and family then the wider public. I was really looking forward to reading this book as an NHS worker, but I actually didn’t even finish it. It was very repetitive and I felt that although Anthea mentions other workers in the NHS it felt very much like she believed nurses were the hardest workers and that just irked me.
It felt too much like an individuals ramblings to me rather than a structured book and I’m usually a big lover of a medical memoir.

A look behind the scenes in a critical care department in the NHS during covid.

I work in a hospital (admin side) so I was aware of what was going on in hospitals than many. But the impression you are left with after reading this book is the sheer fatigue and stress that the nurses and doctors on the frontline went through.

It really opens your eyes to how it was, day after day, and the sacrifices they made for us all. This book is in diarised form so it can be a little repetitive at times - but then sometimes you need that to realise the grind they went through was day after day after day - it was relentless.

It would be wonderful if we had a government that respected NHS staff, and paid them their due for what they went through. Unfortunately we have one that wants to make further cuts and make us work harder. Our hospital Trust have given us a reward - 7.5 hours pro rata extra annual leave, as a one off, to say thank you. Gee whiz!

It's easy to read, but not an easy read, and you'll finish feeling humbled, and having so more respect for the staff who worked so hard during the worst covid times.

Recollections of an ICU nurse working on the front line through covid.

I read this book in one sitting. It wasn’t always an easy read but it was totally compulsive, and both heart breaking and heart warming.

A massive thank you to every nurse, very special.