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4 verk 58 medlemmar 3 recensioner

Verk av Stephen McGann

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I was not looking forward to picking up this book again. I had started to read it a couple of years ago, but was put off by the visceral description included by the author of the Hillsborough Football Disaster. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to read about this recent episode in English history, more that the author's narrative completely overturned what I had previously assumed, heard and read about it.

So, it took a long time for me to return to reading this account of a family's history, as seen through the lens of illness, notably hunger, pestilence, exposure, trauma, breathlessness, heart problems and necrosis.

It's a tough list of diseases to write about, but McGann does it wonderfully. That his immediate and extended family have been touched not just by Hillsborough, but also by the sinking of the Titanic and the Alder Hey children's hospital scandal, is very unfortunate, but the lessons he draws from each, and from other episodes in his family's lives, are truly inspiring and the mark of a mature and thoughtful writer.

I want to say that this is family history writ large. It is, but at the same time it is more than that: it is family history writ well.

Recommended.
… (mer)
 
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SunnyJim | 1 annan recension | Aug 2, 2023 |
Stephen McGann is best known as the beloved Dr. Turner on Call the Midwife but he is also an accomplished medical writer. He takes a unique approach to telling his family history in terms of the various health problems which plagued his family over the generations. It is very readable and leads to one wondering what impact health problems had on our own family stories.
 
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herzogm | 1 annan recension | Jul 18, 2023 |
I'm one of the myriad fans of the BBC show Call the Midwife, so this book caught my attention. It is a cathartic pleasure to me to cry (and smile) my way through a new season each year. What I enjoy most about the show is its emphasis on compassion and its reassurance that even in the face of the most unexpected personal trials, people manage ... and can even extract some peace and contentment one day at a time.

This companion book is written by the actor who plays Doctor Turner in the show (and who is married to the show creator). He is passionate about the show and what it teaches about social and medical history. The book is a combination of real history and fictional journal entries from "Dr. Turner." Plenty of photos of the cast on set are scattered throughout the text.… (mer)
 
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Alishadt | Feb 25, 2023 |

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Statistik

Verk
4
Medlemmar
58
Popularitet
#284,346
Betyg
½ 3.5
Recensioner
3
ISBN
9

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