Breaking and Mending is an incredible piece of writing from Joanna Cannon and so deeply personal. Cannon leaves herself wide open and vulnerable on the page. This is both a personal memoir and a damning indictment of how society, the NHS and each of us as individuals view and treat our health professionals. I am a mental health professional and have experienced burnout as Cannon describes so this was weirdly, in places, like seeing my own soul on the page! I have taken a break from practicing counselling due to physical ill health but also needing a break from the sheer responsibility of it all, We don’t often think about what doctors sacrifice to do what they do and I for one am always grateful that year on year, young people don a white coat post medicine degree and take responsibility for our lives. I found myself thinking a lot about whether it’s a responsibility I would want. As well as the sheer pressure of working on human beings, there’s the ridiculously long hours, the short staffed wards and the sacrifices they make in their social and personal lives to achieve their goals and ultimately save lives. It’s no surprise to me that sometimes this overwhelming responsibility leads to burnout, I found myself constantly worrying about patients but also a creeping dread if It was suggested I could start seeing people again. 

Cannon finds herself in a similar position, sitting in a spare A and E cubicle and wanting to walk away, whilst equally knowing that isn’t possible because you’re the only doctor on shift that night. I loved Cannon’s description of being clinical towards the admin of death - checking the pulse and if there’s any respiratory effort. Yet finding the detritus around the patient’s bed unbearably moving - the half knitted scarf that will never find its owner, or a book only half read. Even though these item seem innocuous enough, Cannon carries them with her and finds their cumulative weight too much too bear. I truly understood how it’s possible to feel your role has no worth in society. We revere complete nobodies who appear on reality tv or who can jump the longest way in a sandpit, but how many of us hold our hospital staff in the same regard. I think COVID has changed this a little. but not enough. I think this is an incredible piece of writing from Cannon and she certainly has a new fan here.

I have reviewed this title as part of my Septmeber reading Wrap Up on my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/pqwJ03pbVoM

This book is an eye opener into the emotional impact of the training and reality of life as a doctor. A reality where a lot is learnt on the job and carries the burden of an image promoted by the media. Where the magic and breathless excitement of those wanting to make a difference by helping to save lives can quickly fade. Doctors are born into a world where society expects their doctors to cope and many learn there is a huge gap between theory and practice.
My favourite quote from the book was ‘we read stories to make sense of the world, to better understand our own situations and challenges’ Location 1345.
The author left school at 15, returned to study in her thirties and completed her medical training. After a life of experiences which included worry, laughter, despair and some things you don’t/cant forget she switched to psychology. Told with compassion and displays of resilience this is her story.
A great book guaranteed to educate and hold your attention. I recommend this to anyone in the medical field and the general public.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest reviewl. 

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime books and psychological ones too however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different.

In my humble opinion, there is more to be learned from this slim but strikingly honest and powerful memoir than any self-help book. I recommend Joanna Cannon's Breaking & Mending unreservedly.

Read full review at Booklover Book Reviews: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/07/breaking-mending-by-joanna-cannon-review-powerful-memoir.html

I LOVED this. It made me  respect those who work in medicine so much , what an amazing career - so brave and so exhausting to help so many. What an important book at a time where the uncertainty of the NHS is so topical. Jo's writing is (as normal) fantastic and I will definitely be recommending this to my customers who are a bit lost after Adam Kay's work. Totally different but both incredible and so interesting! I can't wait to read Jo's next book!

Breaking and Mending is a medical memoir following the authors journey through medical school, from working as a junior doctor, to working on a busy psychiatric ward. 

There are a lot of these kinds of books around but this one is special and unique in its own way. It follows the author as she battles with her mental health and burn out whilst working as a doctor. I think - especially right now - it’s important for people to know the truth about the stress of being a doctor, and how many don’t even make it through medical school. And not because they weren’t capable - but because their mental health suffered as a result and they just couldn’t cope. 

The writing was incredible - so lyrical and you can really feel the voice of the author. It had me hooked from the start and I felt emotional reading it in parts. It felt like I was having an informal chat with them, like they were telling me their story over a cup of coffee in the back garden. 

I was shocked by the way junior doctors are treated. How the author nearly fainted on shift because she hadn’t eaten all day and when she told the consultant she needed to eat, they looked at her with disgust. How at a hospital she worked at the beds we’re removed so doctors couldn’t take a break, how since 2017 3 doctors died in car accidents because they were so exhausted. You read about these things in the media but to hear from someone who's been through it is different and really makes you think.

I recommended this book to anyone - and not just for people who enjoy reading medical memoirs but anyone who wants to understand how hard it is training to be a doctor. I loved this and I’ll remember it for a long time coming!

EXCERPT: Up until that first day as a junior doctor, I had never met death outside of my own family, other than in the detached, leather cadavers of the dissection room and in the neat rituals of a post-mortem. As a medic, I had never found myself face to face with the end of someone's life, at least not one that didn't rest quietly upon a stainless steel table, but still I went to the ward on that day to fulfill my first task as a junior doctor feeling more than prepared for the experience.

And I did know how to feel for a pulse and how to look for signs of respiratory effort. I did know how to check for the presence of a pacemaker and fill out the death certificate. I had been taught all of this, and I could deal with it. But what I couldn't deal with, and what I didn't know, was how I would feel walking into a room at the end of someone's life and seeing all the small details around that room that told me who this person was. The small details that told me this person's story. The bag of knitting and the get-well cards, the half-eaten pack of Polo Mints, and the puzzle books. It was the paperback on the bedside table that stayed with me more than anything else. Closed shut, its bookmark resting forevermore halfway through a story. I took the sight of that paperback and kept it with me. It joined other small details I collected on the wards as I went through my days, not realizing that it was the weight of these details that would eventually break me.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: An intimate, urgent account of doctor burnout and life as a psychiatrist from bestselling author Joanna Cannon

"A few years ago, I found myself in A&E.

I had never felt so ill. I was mentally and physically broken. So fractured, I hadn't eaten properly or slept well, or even changed my expression for months. I sat in a cubicle, behind paper-thin curtains, listening to the rest of the hospital happen around me, and I shook with the effort of not crying. I was an inch away from defeat, from the acceptance of a failure I assumed would be inevitable, but I knew I had to carry on. I had to somehow walk through it.

Because I wasn't the patient. I was the doctor."

A frank account of mental health from both sides of the doctor-patient divide, from the bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things About Elsie, based on her own experience as a doctor working on a psychiatric ward.

MY THOUGHTS: I admire Joanna Cannon greatly. I loved her novels, Three Things About Elsie, and The Difference Between Goats and Sheep. Now I understand how she can write like she does, with such great empathy and understanding.

I have worked in both general and psychiatric nursing in New Zealand, as well as in private practice. I have seen a lot of people, both nurses and doctors, burn out for the same reasons - the hours, the stress, the lack of care and concern for those who care for the ill and dying. People revere actors and sports stars, but are often rude and dismissive of those who save lives. Somewhere, we have managed to get our priorities wrong.

Breaking & Mending is a short but emotional read. This is, as it says in the promotional blurb, 'an intimate account' of a woman's determination to become a doctor, and what happens on her journey.

Next time I need a doctor, I hope that I get a 'cardigan', not a 'coat'.

Thank you Joanna, for sharing your journey with us. I admire you even more than I did before I read Breaking &Mending.

❤❤❤❤❤

#Breaking&Mending #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Joanna Cannon is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone and has been published in 15 countries. The novel was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for The Bookseller Industry Awards 2017 and won the 2016 BAMB Reader Award. Joanna has been interviewed in The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Times, and Good Housekeeping magazine, and her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, and the Guardian, amongst others. She has appeared on BBC Breakfast, BBC News Channel’s Meet the Author, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5, and is a regular at literary festivals across the country including Edinburgh and Cheltenham. Joanna left school at fifteen with one O-level and worked her way through many different jobs – barmaid, kennel maid, pizza delivery expert – before returning to school in her thirties and qualifying as a doctor. Her work as a psychiatrist and interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing, and Joanna currently volunteers for Arts for Health, an organisation bringing creative arts to NHS staff and patients. Joanna Cannon’s second novel Three Things About Elsie is published in January 2018 and explores memory, friendship and old age. She lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Serpent's Tail/Profile Books for providing a digital ARC of Breaking & Mending by Joanna Cannon for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book!

As a big fan of medical reads at the moment, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one, having just loved Hand With Care and Prison Doctor, however I was disappointed with this one.
Its alot shorter than the others so thought it would be a nice quick read, but if I'm honest it was quite boring and a very negative outlook of working for the NHS.
When someone like Adam Kay describes how hard it is, he does it in a way that is describing how it is, but Joanna just sounded like she was moaning the whole time. When she summed up at the end that she enjoyed working for the NHS all those years, I was surprised because you didnt get that feeling throughout the book!
Overall for me, this isn't a book I would recommend and with so many good medical books out at the moment, i would read the other ones, as you arent missing much here, sorry!

Having read and loved  Three Things about Elsie (5*) and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (4*) I was fascinated to read this memoir by Joanna Cannon. I found it a timely reminder that doctors are human beings who make mistakes, can only do their best and who have feelings and faults just like the rest of us. With Covid prevalent in our society it is a timely reminder that everyone in the NHS is worth their weight in gold and we owe them a huge debt. For every thoughtless, superior medic there are thousands who deserve our respect and sympathy.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Joanna Cannon/Serpent's Tale for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley.  I really enjoy medical memoirs as a genre, and I liked that Cannon's focus was heavily on her own experiences rather than stories. As much as I'm fascinated by medical stories in other memoirs, her approach was a refreshing change.  Emotive and interesting, I would recommend it..

“Medicine is a vocation, not a job, we are often told. The reality is, it is both, but when the conditions of the job become unbearable, when the demands made of us are likely to put our own lives at risk, not to mention the lives of the patients in our care, we are expected to continue to bear it because of a deep-rooted sense of purpose. A calling to serve and heal, and to fix.”

Breaking and Mending is a book by award-winning British doctor and author, Joanna Cannon. Whenever we or our loved ones visit the emergency department of a hospital, or are admitted, we put our health, and often our lives, in the hands of the medical staff there, many of whom are junior doctors. But few of us, unless we work in the system or are close to those who do, understand the pressure that system puts on those doctors. 

Dr Jo Cannon is in the unique position of having experienced that system, having been a casualty of it, and having the literary skill to be able to succinctly share that experience: “Each time I read that another doctor has vanished from their life , that someone else has felt the need to disappear from this landscape, it takes my breath away for a moment, because it could have been any one of us. It most definitely could have been me, as I sat there in an A& E cubicle trying to work out how a job I had been so determined to do, and so desperate to be good at, had turned itself into my nemesis.”

Dr Jo describes exactly how the system drives these dedicated professionals to breakdown, to leave the vocation they loved, to take their own lives. She points out that the conditions under which junior doctors work (sleep deprived and meal deprived) present danger, not just for the doctor and the patients they treat, but also for road users as they drag themselves home on auto-pilot. “For all their training, for all their knowledge and expertise in sustaining good health, attending to their own well-being is something that doctors are not especially good at… Look after yourself, we are told and then we are placed in a situation where self-care is impossible, and even seen by some as unpleasantly self-indulgent.”

Dr Jo includes pertinent quotes from many involved in the process: the admissions tutor. the lecturer, the medical student, the junior doctor, the consultant, the nurse, the ward sister, the patient, and the mental health nurse, as she relates her journey towards her ultimately satisfying role in psychiatry.

As well as the strong message about the need for change to the system, for better mentoring and less pressure, Dr Jo treats the reader to some marvellous prose: “we should all choose our words with more care because we never know the scales with which they will be measured” and “we stalk the hospital looking for examples , our pens poised over our workbooks, like medical birdwatchers” are some.

Also “I knew these were the things patients say when they’re told a diagnosis: offering them piece by piece to the teller, as if evidence of the unfairness and the unlikeliness of it all will make the diagnosis realise its mistake, change its mind and walk away”  The pressure from the system is clearly not unique to Britain as Australian doctor Sonia Henry’s excellent novel, Going Under attests. A sobering and very important read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail.

I've read a few memoirs of medical professionals, and often found they focused on recounting stories of interesting, funny or sad patients.  This book is different.  Yes, there are stories of patients in this memoir, but more than that there is a deep, warm heart.  She is telling these tales not because they make a good story (although they absolutely do) but because she herself was shaped by them.  She recalls them not only as a doctor, but as a compassionate human being who is indelibly marked by the people she has cared for or been taught by.  A side effect of this was her own mental health, and this book is honest about the pressures faced by junior doctors and the strain under which our NHS is struggling.  Having worked in many different clinical settings, I recognised the characters she herself came across - the mentor, the bully, the pedant, the guardian angel - and the impact these can have on someone trying to learn their way through a complex and terrifying profession.  Her story of confidence-crisis and burnout really resonated with me.  And not because we responded in the same way (reader, I quit), but because of her ability to share her experience and emotions in such a beautiful voice.  Although this is set in the world of the hospital, there is nothing stark or sterile about this book.  It is soft and rich, raw and open.  As a doctor she saw people rather than patients, and with this book we get to see not just a doctor but a person.  I loved this.

A breathtakingly beautiful and poignant memoir. I read it in one sitting and felt emotionally depleted but full of respect and compassion when I had finished. It is truly tragic that our doctors have to endure the brutal hours and unending stress they currently face. The author writes honestly and doesn’t gloss over any of the emotions she has experienced. 

Thank you to all the doctors and healthcare workers out there. You do an incredible job. A beautiful book giving a scary insight into our NHS. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

With grateful thanks to Netgalley and Serpent’s Tail for a digital copy of Breaking and Mending in return for an honest review. I was really delighted to receive a digital copy of this book as I am a great fan of Joanna Cannon’s fiction,.  I believe that some novels in their subject matter, sensitive treatment of themes and understanding of humanity reveal a compassionate and loving author and I was interested in finding out more about Cannon’s experiences as a Doctor. This year I have read both Adam Kay’s books about his experiences as a junior doctor and ‘The Language of Kindness’ by Christie Watson all of which top the bestseller list as we satisfy our curiosity about the institution that is our NHS. Breaking and Mending is more akin to Watson’s book – reflective, analytical, soul-searching. The mood is more sombre without the laugh out loud humour of Kay’s works. Like Watson, Cannon reflects on the journey which brought her to become a Doctor – she started later in life having left school with very few qualifications – and describes her early days at medical school where it took her weeks to be able to look at a dead body. Cannon reveals so much of herself in this honest account – mental and physical battles, a terrible car crash and constant self-analysis about her ability to be a ‘good doctor’, finally concluding that ‘you can never be the doctor you wanted to become, because the doctor you wanted to become would not be able to survive.’.. The book paints a bleak picture of the NHS , ‘Time, money, resources and hope all run dry. The NHS is held together by the goodwill of those who work within it, but even then it will fracture, and you fall into the gaps those fractures create, and you will disappear.’ This is born out in the case of all three authors who left the service.  Breaking and Mending is deeply reflective and questioning, selective in the case studies it presents,  but the patient accounts included live with you for days. It is a tale of burn out, long hours, unbearable stress but endless, selfless compassion. She tells the story of early days on the wards at night when her registrar disappears off to Amsterdam – Cannon is left in charge of life and death overnight, completely unqualified and inexperienced. When she tells the consultant he turns on her. I greatly enjoyed reading, ‘Breaking and Mending’- it added another texture to my very inadequate understanding of being a doctor and yet again it left me thinking ‘WHY?’ Why does it have to be like that….

Hi everyone!
I adore this book so much! I'm currently studying medicine, and it's the first medicine-related book I've ever read, and it was a perfect match.

This is a beautiful memoir about Joanna, a doctor who decided to study later in her life, but this never stopped her from following her passion.

It deals with her journey from her first lecture, to the time she found her 'family' in psychiatry. She explores how these years shaped her into the doctor she is today and the emotional part of her job. How emotions are often ignored in the medical field because sometimes you can know the rarest of diseases but cannot find a way to cope with the death of a patient.

She talks about her first visit to the mortuary, the excitement of looking at people when you know anatomy. Learning how to talk with patients and use the right kindness. How self-doubt made her think she didn't deserve to be there but then finding motivation in patients and the desire to make even the tiniest of difference. And last but not least what inspired her to pursue psychiatry (one of the things I'd love to do as a doctor).

It is beautifully written, in fact, I highlighted entire paragraphs that are just so lovely that I want to read them again and again.

Towards the end, she says that she is afraid to deter people from following a career in medicine, but honestly, she inspired me so much and even motivated me, because I feel the same things. 

"Stories bind us together, stories unite us, and we tell our stories in the hope that someone out there will listen, and we will be understood."

Thank you Netgalley and Serpent’s Tail for the ARC and thank you for reading,
Arvenig

- We should all choose our words with more care because we never know the scales with which they will be measured. - Joanna Cannon

Breaking & Mending was a fascinating insight into the life of a junior doctor. I loved reading about the different stages in Jo's career as a doctor and how she reacted during different situations. It was heartbreaking and life affirming, and it would be a pleasure to be treated by a doctor with Jo's bedside manner, you could tell from her words that she cared deeply about those patients who she mentioned in her memoir.

I think that the overall tone of the book isn't a humorous one like perhaps This is Going to Hurt, but still a must read for fans of the doctor / memoir type reads.

‘Kindness is nothing to do with wearing a uniform or stethoscope. It’s to do with being human’

This is a memoir about Joanna Cannon’s experiences as a junior doctor in the NHS. She describes everything from the very beginning of her medical career - throughout medical school, her first days as a junior doctor and her transition through to psychiatry.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It was heartbreaking, touching and extremely emotional and I flew through it. You learn about the day-to-day experiences that all of our Doctors and Nurses go through each shift, and the impact this has on their mental wellbeing. Not having enough time sleep, eat or even drink. The emotional weight that comes with trying to help each patient, when sometimes there is no solution.

I recommend everyone to read this book. It was beautifully written and the stories inside are extremely moving and will stay with me for a long time. 

*I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback via netgalley*

With Breaking and Mending, you get an honest, raw and personal story of one Junior doctors experiences.
I've always enjoyed medical themed books, and getting a glimpse into different careers and lives.
This book was perfect for that.
Thoughtful and well written, I found myself flying through this book and enjoying every moment of it.
I would highly recommend it.

This is a relatively short book but so incredibly overwhelming that it took me several sittings to get through it and it left me with plenty to think about. 

At the heart, it’s the personal story of one person as they begin medical school and grapple with the differences between the ideology and reality of being a junior doctor. The emotional side of the job is really explored here, an area that is often forgotten or overlooked.

Cannon doesn’t avoid criticism of the system and the status quo either, to the point she expresses concerns that she’ll put people off applying for medical school! But, while the NHS is wonderful that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved and I think it’s essential to have these discussions. Burnout is a real problem and we often lose track of the individual behind the doctors (or other health professional) title. More needs to be done to ensure we don’t lose good, compassionate doctors, like Cannon, to burnout and support them to have long and fulfilling careers.

For anyone working in our healthcare system this is a must read. Despite it being a very personal account, I’m certain that many areas of it will ring true for others.