Benji Waterhouse

Darkly amusing and touching... It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff.

Hilarious, shocking and urgent… a deeply compassionate book, which paints a picture of professional dedication in the face of almost unbelievable dysfunction

It has a freshness and verve that sets it apart... What is unwavering and beautifully described is the inspiration Waterhouse continues to find in his patients. He has that essential trait of all good doctors: a sincere and lasting tenderness for his flawed and frail, crude and complicated, broken and brilliant fellow human beings… Ultimately, this is a campaigning work, both brilliantly funny and deadly serious…. His book is humane, hilarious, eye-opening – and deserves to be widely read

Dr Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know

Humorous and humane … [Waterhouse] finds the funny without turning patients into punchlines... It’s a warm-hearted reminder that the [NHS] system is still staffed by many people doing their darnedest to connect with and care for people

A darkly comic personal trawl through the world of psychiatry and the idiosyncratic characters struggling on both sides of the divide. Honest, funny, saddening and uplifting all rolled into one

Jo Brand, comedian and former psychiatric nurse

Very funny and deeply sympathetic. Really excellent

A heartbreaking and also funny look at psychiatry. I loved this engrossing book which taught me lots of new things and broadened my mind

Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving in equal measure, his compassion for his patients shines through. Wonderfully written. I loved this book

Max Pemberton, author of Trust Me I'm a (Junior) Doctor

An absolute beauty... Wise, warm, witty and an excellent insight

This is honestly my dream book. Both fascinating and bleakly funny in the way only an embattled NHS psychiatrist's book could be

Fern Brady, author of Strong Female Character

I loved it. Witty, poignant, thoughtful, and moving. It’s made me want to start psychiatry all over again

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, former President of The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Funny, clear-eyed and unexpectedly moving

Fascinating, heartbreaking and hilarious

Funny but also touching and, at times, incredibly sad. A love letter to both psychiatry and the patients we care for, the author's humanity and devotion shine through.

[A] superb memoir… a book that should really prompt a public inquiry but is also, somehow, hilarious… If this book does not serve as a wake-up call that serious change is needed, I don’t know what will

Furious and very funny… If you want to read something that matters, try this

[A] compassionate, insightful and thought-provoking memoir

A topical read that sheds light and humour on a dark crisis

Waterhouse…manages to tread that delicate line of being both humane and hilarious

[A] stark, funny, and humane account of working as a psychiatrist in the UK’s National Health Service… profoundly and ruthlessly honest

Treading a delicate line between the humane and the hilarious… An unforgettable joy

A darkly comic personal trawl through the world of psychiatry and the idiosyncratic characters struggling on both sides of the divide. Honest, funny, saddening and uplifting all rolled into one.

A Psychiatrist’s Life

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 
 
A humane, hilarious and heart-breaking window into the world of psychiatry from ‘the Adam Kay of mental healthcare’ (THE TIMES) 
 
'Very funny and deeply sympathetic. Really excellent' HENRY MARSH 
 
'This is honestly my dream book. Both fascinating and bleakly funny' FERN BRADY 
 
‘Honest, funny, saddening and uplifting all rolled into one’ JO BRAND 
 
A woman in a wedding dress arrives at the hospital looking for Harry Styles. 
 
A lorry driver with schizophrenia believes he’s got a cure for coronavirus. 
 
A depressed man hides his profession from his GP due to stigma. 
 
Most of the psychiatric cases in this book are his patients. Some of them are family. One of them is him. 
 
Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality. 
 
Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures? 
 
You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here explores these complicated questions from both sides of the doctor’s desk. 
 
This is the perfect read for fans of This Is Going to Hurt, Unnatural Causes and The Prison Doctor. 
 
 
Instant Sunday Times bestseller, May 2024

Benji Waterhouse

Praise for You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here

Darkly amusing and touching... It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff.

Hilarious, shocking and urgent… a deeply compassionate book, which paints a picture of professional dedication in the face of almost unbelievable dysfunction

It has a freshness and verve that sets it apart... What is unwavering and beautifully described is the inspiration Waterhouse continues to find in his patients. He has that essential trait of all good doctors: a sin ...

Darkly amusing and touching... It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff.

Hilarious, shocking and urgent… a deeply compassionate book, which paints a picture of professional dedication in the face of almost unbelievable dysfunction

It has a freshness and verve that sets it apart... What is unwavering and beautifully described is the inspiration Waterhouse continues to find in his patients. He has that essential trait of all good doctors: a sin ...

Darkly amusing and touching... It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff.

Hilarious, shocking and urgent… a deeply compassionate book, which paints a picture of professional dedication in the face of almost unbelievable dysfunction

It has a freshness and verve that sets it apart... What is unwavering and beautifully described is the inspiration Waterhouse continues to find in his patients. He has that essential trait of all good doctors: a sin ...

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