I was gripped from the start with this book, I loved going through the journey of Rachel’s career and elements of her personal life. She is so warm and kind, the book demonstrates how much she really cares for the people she sees and how she wants the best for them.

I don’t have any children at the moment so have never had personal experience with a health visitor, in fact before this book I could only give you a rough idea of what I thought they did. I didn’t even know they were nurses! I thought they were professionals but didn’t know they were nurses.

Rachel and others like her are the backbones of our NHS, it is times like these we realise how important our NHS is. Racheal entered the NHS over 40 years ago as a student nurse, before continuing and becoming a health visitor. She cared for her family and all the people she was assigned to visit. We go with her to a number of households and situations discovering some people are doing well, others struggling but will get there with a helping hand and others who aren’t suitable parents no matter how many people try to help.

I loved this book, it isn’t the same as an Adam Kay book but it never claimed to be. This is Rachel Hearson’s experience, no one else’s. The book does have more of a focus on Rachel and her life and career rather than a tell-all on her patients which I enjoyed.

I was really interested in this book having read the summary and wanted to love it, as I have many of the other "confessions of a..." type books.
Unfortunately this one I found fell short of the mark, I was interested to read all about the families involved, thinking it would be a bit like call the midwife, but found there to be little in the way of this information and far far more of her own life story.
I also found it was repetitive in parts and the tone was often belittling about others and constantly singing her own praises.
Interesting in parts, but not what I expected from the summary.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in return for my honest review.

‘Handle With Care’ is yet another medical memoir but this time from the perspective of an NHS health visitor. I found this view very unique as most medical memoirs lately are from doctors or clinicians working in hospitals. Health visitors have the interesting experience of visiting patients in their homes multiple times over the course of months and years.

I really enjoyed reading the parts of this book which featured babies and new mothers. It’s a great book which sheds light on poverty and how difficult mothers have it, especially during the first few months of their child’s lives. It made me realise how much more the NHS should be funding health visitors as the author mentions how drastically the services have had to adapt over the decades and how much more support they should be getting.

The downside to this book for me was how much personal history of the author was included. I’m all for knowing about the author’s life but I feel that it would’ve been nicer to have snippets throughout rather than large chunks. It was about 60% personal history and 40% health visiting and I feel like I would’ve enjoyed the book even more if there were more sections about actually going out to visit patients.

It was an overall good book and I would definitely recommend it to people interested in nursing, midwifery or health visiting. However, if you’re thinking about picking this up because you enjoyed books like ‘This Is Going To Hurt’ and ‘Can You Hear Me?’ then just be aware that this book is not set out in a similar way.

I so wanted to enjoy this as I have read a few key worker memoirs lately and I am a family worker and work closely with health visitors so felt I would be able to relate. Unfortunately this was not the case - I felt there was a lot of her own personal experience, which thought interesting took up too much of the story. I would have preferred more specific stories to go deeper and in more detail. The writing also didn’t flow and felt quite disjointed with the brief sentences at time which I didn’t enjoy. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Mirror Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

In this book we see how a health visitor lives and the journey to the job that ensued from training, moving, furthering education and falling into hard times and learning who true friends are while dealing with the demanding task of caring for babies and children living in the community from the happy to the threatened, uncared for in squalor in shows the huge social divide in society and how health workers put their lives on the line to help out new and experienced mother's trying to cope.



It was a very open and honest book and gave a full perspective on what various things health visitors have to go through and see in all the situations they face it was frank, open and very honest and shows what dedication they have to the job, especially in Rachael's case.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Very good read.

I really enjoyed Rachael Hearson's memoir. She joined the NHS as a student nurse 40 years ago. She's worked as a nurse, midwife, and health visitor-the latter for 30 years. I have read memoirs by doctors, nurses, surgeons, midwives etc; but never a health visitor, so I thought this would be interesting for a change. It certainly was.

You just think they call in for a cosy chat and a coffee; see how mum and baby is doing. Yes, if they're lucky-the reality is usually much different with all manner of conditions, moods and scenarios to deal with.

The author was born in Devon, in 1960, and from a Romany travelling family on her dad's side. So really, she's been there. Her childhood home wasn't that packed with facilities-eg outside lav etc. She's not been wrapped up in cotton wool.

I know my mum used to think that perhaps some health visitors in her day "knew nowt". "What do they know? They've probably never had any children" etc. Well, yes, she has. And she knows her stuff: She's been a nurse and a midwife before becoming a health visitor, so you sort of get a 'three for the price of one' memoir.

Very revealing-she's been through many things, she's had some hard times too, she's not stuffy and talking down to you.

Wow, some of the situations she faces! They do much more than you think-it's not just baby clinics! An eye-opening memoir, and a very good read.

The memoir follows the author's upbringing and early years as a trainee at St Barts then St Thomas's and Guys.Hospitals. We learn all about her career as trainee, a nurse, a midwife and ultimately the Health Visitor. There is personal info about her husband., their own financial struggles and about their two children BB and GG.

We are told "stories from the frontline" some which are downright scary, heart in the mouth moments along with sadness, poverty, happiness along with flashes of humour. You can tell that Rachael absolutely loved her career and found it very fulfilling.

She touches on everyday life and the role of the Health Visitor - having to deal with domestic abuse, neglect, mental health issues, self harm, foodbanks and endless amounts of paperwork.

I found it an interesting read.

I’d like to thank Mirror Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Handle With Care’ by Rachael Hearson in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Rachael Hearson has spent forty years working in the NHS firstly as a nurse training at St Barts in London, then at St Thomas’ & Guy’s as a midwife, and finally as a health visitor where she’s been for the last thirty years. This book is her memoirs of times good and bad, funny and sad, but all of them unmissable.

‘Handle With Care’ is the autobiography of Ms Hearson who describes her years from childhood to the present day. I’ve enjoyed reading the anecdotes of her cases, some of which made me laugh out loud and others that left me with a tear in my eye. The descriptions she gives are hilarious such as using the WC in the yard with spiders waiting to pounce, and the shortcomings of a certain brand of toilet paper - I remember it all too well from past experience! She’s very candid about the difficulties her family experiences when money is non-existent and food for her children is more important than petrol. As a mother myself I’m aware of how welcome a health visitor is when help and guidance is required with a new baby but this book is an eye-opener on what else the job encompasses. On reaching the last few pages I’m amazed at how up-to-date this book is to mention the dreadful Coronavirus pandemic and what’s going on in the world. I have great respect and gratitude for the dedication of Ms Hearson and all those who work selflessly for our NHS, the best health service in the world.

Handle With Care is the autobiography of Rachael Hearson from her childhood in North Devon to her Nurse's training at St Barts in London and her subsequent career as a Health Visitor in various parts of the country. As she points out most people seem to think that Health Visitors turn up for a cup of tea and a chat and aren't "real nurses". While that's far from the truth, as Ms Hearson points out , sometimes that cuppa and a chat is just what vulnerable people need to open up ,someone to listen to people not used to people listening, Health Visitors are not only fully trained "real nurses" but have to undergo a lot of further training. As well as some of the quite shocking experiences she has, people living in appalling squalor and often being in physical danger she tells how the NHS and help for the vulnerable has changed in the 40 years of her sterling work and I don't think many readers would be surprised that it's not been for the better. Reading the book also shows how many dedicated people in hospitals and various social services try to perform miracles with ever decreasing budgets and increasing workloads for little more than they could earn in a supermarket.
As well as "the medical stuff" Ms Hearson's tales of her Barnstaple childhood are fascinating,an area I know quite well and I even know people who would have been in the same block of Council Flats in Plymouth while she lived there. Shes; quite scathing about the benefits system as well, like many she experienced it personally and unexpectedly when her husband lost his job. The book is quite political but Ms Hearson has seen the NHS and support for vulnerable eroded over the years with more people left feeling hopeless and isolated. It's far from a rant though and there are many bits of humour along the way as well as stories of people who improved their lives with a bit of help and just as importantly someone taking a genuine interest in them.
Rachael Hearson comes across as a very empathetic and caring person, her whole working life has been one of helping and supporting people. This is a great book on many levels,highly recommended .

Thanks to Rachael Hearson, Mirror Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

"There is absolute joy and fulfilment in health visiting".

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting as I found both her personal and professional stories fascinating. The author has definitely a lot of love for her job. I agree with the other reviews that the book definitely needs more cases and more narrative in the existing cases as it tends to navigate more to an autobiography.
Nevertheless, I found the book captivating and the epilogue really satisfying, especially her commentary on the coronavirus (written in April 2020).

This wasn't what I was expecting st all. I thought it was going to be similar to Adam Kay books but it wasnt at all. Not saying it was awful just not what I was expecting. Also found it was more of an auto biography too.

I find these medical memoirs to be a bit hit and miss and unfortunately, this one really wasn't for me. Rachael has a bit about her work as a health visitor at the start before delving into her background and family history. The main draw of this book is about the work and the patients and there's actually surprisingly little of that and what there is isn't overly interesting. It doesn't come across that she cares too much about the patients and doesn't accurately portray the difficult job that health visitors do. Not for me I'm afraid.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. The narrator is likeable and her style is easy to read. I would have preferred more anecdotes about her work and less about her personal life, as the book is supposed to be about the career of a health visitor. What anecdotes there were were quite brief and didn't really include any follow up or closure. I think this book would benefit from further editing to flesh out and expand upon the professional experiences and case studies. I also found the timeline slightly disjointed and it was sometimes difficult to tell where in time and space we were. I would like to read a follow up/sequel!

For over 40 years, Rachael Hearson has worked within the NHS as a nurse, first tackling the wards before moving into the realm of a health visitor. This has meant she’s been subjected to a wide range of patients, from all walks of life, as she’s invited into their homes to see their young children. She’s had a first-hand experience of the changing services the NHS provide, moving into rising cases of social care and mental health issues, as well as the shear increase in the volume of patients that now require the service. This is her insight into what’s changed through the years, as well as what hasn’t, introducing us to a few memorable cases along the way.

Although I did find parts of this really interesting to read, as I often find that the voice of health visitors is largely under heard, I found it focused too heavily on the author’s personal life – giving us essentially a journey from early childhood into her time as a nurse and beyond. Unfortunately I just didn’t find this aspect of the book all that interesting, and a lot of it could have been summarised and still provide a decent backstory of the author’s life. I was much more invested in the stories that involved her patients, but I found that quite often these were rather brief and not fleshed out enough. I think it may have been better if they had been brought into the story more, and had more narrative to them. It also would have been nice to see more diverse stories, as health visitors see should a broad range of patients and their lifestyles, and I feel this aspect of the book was underwhelming. It focuses very heavily on drug abuse and not much else.

This had a lot of potential, but fell a little short in execution. With over 40 year’s experience in the field, I was expecting some more interesting stories than what I got. However, those that I did read I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was looking forward to this book written from the viewpoint of a health visitor having not seen one from this perspective before. I tend to read most books written by nurses, doctors, midwives etc being in healthcare myself and enjoy reading different experiences and comparing and contrasting with my own. Unfortunately this one didn’t hit the mark for me. I found the writing rather chaotic and disjointed with too much focus on the authors life story rather than the job role in hand. More depth to the family backgrounds and their situations with more information from the office and experiences within the NHS would have been interesting to me.

This is non fiction at its very best. I love a medical based non fiction and this is one of the better ones I’ve read.

A really interesting view of life as a nurse, midwife and then health visitor working in the NHS. Hearson has worked in the NHS for roughly as long as I've been alive and she has seen a great many changes. I wish I'd have read this book before I had my kids so that I knew more of what a health visitor was able to help me with as a new mother.. A tale of women (and some men) trying to do their best against the backdrop of changing political parties, regulations and ever reducing funding. Recommended for all those who want to diss the NHS.

I was looking forward to reading this having enjoyed previous key worker memoirs from doctors, firefighters etc. I've also had a very mixed experience with health visitors myself so was interested in what happens behind the scenes.

Unfortunately for me this didn't deliver. The focus of the book is too heavy on her own personal life and the client stories are extremely brief and not fully explained. I felt I knew more about her cars and kids schools than why decisions about child removal were made.
It would have been interesting to hear more anonymised client experiences. Where are the disabled children, premature, post partum mental health, etc? Why were decisions made, what happened next and her feelings and perhaps errors were missing. The focus is mainly on addicts which I appreciate takes up a lot of time but it would've been good to hear more or a range.
It was also a bit repetitive in places but this might be sorted as it's an advance copy. I also felt it lacked professionalism at times with a client described as 'bat shit crazy' and some judgement of child's names.

My thanks to Netgalley and Mirror books for a copy of Handle with care by Rachel Hearson for an honest review.
I love reading books that give you an insight into the Occupations of others,, especially those in the medical field, where it is definitely a vocation and not a job
Handle with care doesn’t disappoint.!
Rachel Hearson has worked as a midwife and a health visitor .As she says ,she wants to convey the very best bits of her job as well as some of the challenges in her book.She certainly does this and shows how she, and I suppose so many in her profession , go above and beyond their job description, by helping out financially and emotionally,
It takes a special sort of person to deal with what she has seen and had to do and her humour and compassion shine through every page.
Would definitely recommend

I was keen to read handle with care as I did my registered nurse training in the eighties so could relate to the authors experiences and it certainly bought back memories for me! I found this book an interesting enlightening read particularly as the author had experienced many of the trials and tribulations that her clients had so could relate to them so much better! The difference in the service offered today compared to the past was drastic, although many of the problems such as poverty, depression and poor housing still persist today!A good interesting read that I enjoyed!
Thank you net galley for this early read.