Such an emotional read - tears, laughter, joy, relief. This anthology of Michael’s journey through COVID, including his 40 days in a coma with letters from a wide selection of medical professionals helping in ICU to the team of physios and specialists helping him (literally) get back on his feet

A poignant and moving recollection of a covid journey. Told from different perspectives whilst Michael was in ICU. His journey back from the brink and his struggles to adapt to the new reality and challenges he faced.

This books is a word scrapbook of Michael Rosen’s experience with Coronavirus. It’s incredibly powerful, authentic and without a doubt the best account of Covid I have read.

Rosen has pieced together tweets, a diary by ICU staff of his time in a coma, letters, updates from his life and poetry to provide a kaleidoscope picture of what has happened to him, and to so many others. It starts from the time the decision was made for him to go into hospital, through to him being able to return home and continue his recovery there.

There is so much in this. It made me cry in places with its rawness and honesty and the compassion from staff (quite rare for me), chuckle at some of his observations, feel rage at the governments sheer inadequacies, nod in agreement with his take on hospitals and also feel I had time to stop and reflect on this past year too.

A really wonderful book about a far from wonderful time. I think this is going to be one that will go down in history for us to remember these times.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A resounding 5 star read. Emotional, articulate account of Michael's journey battling with Covid-19 in hospital and beyond. A tremendous insight to the care from the NHS staff he received and is still receiving. A quick and enthralling read with a good amount of wry humour in the mix. It certainly gives the reader a greater understanding of this horrible virus from a sufferers point of view. The notes from the NHS staff involved were amazing giving an insight how all the various arms of the NHS were pulled in to help in the fight to save lives in Intensive Care. A definite must read with a reminder of Michael's poem in honour of the 60th anniversary of the NHS reproduced at the end.

A brilliant version of the events through Michael's experience of Covid last year. It includes text messages from family and notes left from all the different staff that cared for Michael in hospital and rehab. The notes were left in a notebook, over the weeks in intensive care and months of debilitating illness, trying and learning to breathe.
It is candid, it is poetic, deeply moving and above all real.
The descriptions and comments show the real story of so many dedicated staff and what it means to be a recipient of their care.
Just beautiful.

A real joy, at last COVID 19 has an authentic voice to bring it to account.

Michael speaks up for all in this personal account of how this virus takes human victims rather than just culls the very old and sick. This is a heart-rending and uplifting account of hope. An affirmation that we need others to prevail.

Now we have Michael Rosen’s words of reflection as a survivor; words of clarity and focus.

I remember the shock I felt when pictures of a far from recovered Rosen were on the news. It was closer and stalking everyone, not just statistics anymore.

Now we have the story of how he became a news item and he reveals how he has continued to overcome in part the long term effects of this horrible disease.

There is still a fear that this disease brings to many; there is that uncertainty that life will never be ‘normal’ again but now we have this wonderful poetic resonance of the human spirit. Coming to terms with circumstances beyond our control. We are indebted to this master of language; with observation of feelings, management of emotions and personal insight. In a brevity of words; in a poetic prose he has spoken direct to our very essence and made room for hope where fear had taken root. Provided a celebration of the human spirit where despondency had chosen to dwell. A very human tale when our very humanity had left us feeling defenceless.

A must read. I enjoyed the ease and access to Rosen through a record of care, chance, commitment and love.
The isolation and confusion are shared. However, somehow the end had a new beginning. I hope this book may bring comfort to others, name the beast for what it is and help us realise that humanity survives as a community.

Many have been alone and devoid of touch and warmth in isolation. In hospital visitors haven’t been allowed. This book champions the actions and support of others. Rosen sees no heroism in his survival merely the determination of others to care for him, they are the heroes, they are the champions and Rosen is alive because of their collective response.

'But let's not talk about death.
Let's talk about life.
Hundreds of people helped me have that'

'Many Different Kinds of Love' is an incredibly moving book charting Michael Rosen's first symptoms of Covid 19 through to his ongoing recovery. The true reality of what Covid 19 can do to the body is laid out here on the pages.

Whilst in a coma, the NHS hospital staff kept a diary which is printed in this book. Their words show the tenderness and care towards their patient as they willed him to get better. The continuous encouragement from Michael's wife Emma is beautiful to read too.

Through his poetry and writing, Michael captures the confusion, frustration, sadness and at times anger of having Covid 19. Ultimately however, this is about love, care and kindness. It's a beautiful book and I am so pleased to have read it.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK for the opportunity to read and review a preview copy.

A moving, inspiring, humbling and very personal experience of living through COVID-19 and then learning to live with the new reality of life after Covid.

This book is a truly touching tale told by Mr Rosen, his wife and the staff who cared for him. From his first signs of severe illness to the care received in intensive care and subsequent rehabilitation we see how many people it takes to heal a man.

On return home, it is found that a new normal has replaced the old and a different way of thinking, loving and learning is the way through. With the support of his family and an army of healthcare workers Mr Risen is getting there but maybe just one bear hunt at a time.

Michael’s experience of Covid is told in the most wonderful way in Many Different Kinds of Love. The anthology includes an incredibly moving letter from a friend and neighbour which is a GP (who undoubtedly saved Michael’s life), messages from his wife, personal notes from some of those who were caring for him whilst he was in intensive care and then the main body of the book is completed with Michael’s superb prose poems.
Michael has survived such a horrendous experience and every thought and emotion one could imagine is touched upon in this book. His poems are so well written and the book is put together so brilliantly as a collection that this makes for such a good read. I initially was concerned that it may be such a sad and sombre book, but it was not. The times of darkness are there of course, but there are also moments of joy and Michael’s sense of humour comes through on many occasions, and I found myself laughing out loud several times when I least expected it!
I follow Michael on Twitter and wish him all the very best with his continuing recovery.
Highly recommend this book which is a perfect read.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought Many Different Kinds Of Love was excellent. It’s not just that we all love Michael Rosen and are delighted that he didn’t die of Covid – it really is a very fine, involving an often moving account of his time in hospital, his (continuing) recovery and the aftermath of his illness.

Much of the book is in the form of prose-poems about Michael’s experience. Many are reflective but they are also brilliantly descriptive and capture the essence of extraordinary moments and periods, like this brief one:
“A doctor is standing by my bed
asking me if I would sign a piece of paper
which would allow them to put me to sleep
and pump air into my lungs.
‘Will I wake up?’‘There’s a 50: 50 chance.’
‘If I say no?’I say.
‘Zero.’
And I sign.”

The early part of the book covers a time when Michael was unconscious much of the time and it consists largely of emails from family and others (especially Michael’s wife Emma, a quiet heroine of this story) and a Patient Journal with contributions form those who looked after him in Intensive Care and hovering on the edge of death for weeks. Individually, they are charming and quite touching, but taken as a whole I found the unfailing and genuine care, encouragement and sincere affection from so many people (coming from so many prts of the world) extremely moving. As Michael later says:
“Why did these strangers try so hard
to keep me alive?
It’s a kindness I can hardly grasp.”

Michael’s descriptions and reflections are vivid and thoughtful, and they give an exceptional and, for me, utterly gripping picture of his experience. It isn’t a long book, but it conveyed more than many books several times its length. Everyone should read this; it’s wholly involving and very illuminating account of what Covid really means and the immensity of the human spirit which is standing up to it.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

As a huge fan of Michael Rosen's poems and of course the 'bear hunt', I was sad to hear that he was in hospital with coronavirus. This book is an engaging, emotional account of his journey back to health.

Many things struck me as I read. Firstly, how our NHS is full of heroes. In the hospital diary, it recounts how many nurses usually worked in entirely different areas like speech therapy. It is clear that each one of those people genuinely cared for Michael and willed him to get better.

The love and support of his wife, Emma and his children is evident too. How lovely that they made a playlist of music to be played to him.

I loved the poems, particularly about his recovery. It is a book full of honesty, love and hope.

It is wonderful that Michael Rosen has survived this horrible virus and I wish him all the best.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. I will definitely be recommending this book.

Many thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
I was delighted to be approved for an ARC of this book. I am a huge fan of Michael Rosen, and had heard that this book was about to be published. I read it in its entirety in an afternoon. I wouldn't wish to be so presumptive as to try to give a personal precis of this book, it's is far too emotionally deep and utterly brilliant to do that. I will say that Michael tells us exactly what we need to know about having Covid 19, and what it can do. To read the ICU diary entries from his carers gave such incredible insights into how it was. I feel immensely privileged to have been able to read of his experience, and to know the gratitude he feels for his NHS carers. The love he has for his wife Emma and his children, and they for him too, is beautiful to read of.
If I could give this book a Universe full of stars, I would. I give it the highest recommendation possible.

I have always been a fan of Michael Rosen. He is an amazing author and poet, and my class of 3 year olds adore Bear Hunt so when I was that he had a new book about his time suffering from covid, I just had to request it on Netgalley.
The poetry and letters in this book are just amazing. It sounds like Michael's time with covid was terrifying and he managed to pull through, but only just. It really does show just how amazing the NHS is. This book is a real tear jerker. A brilliant and important read!

A sweet tender, moving, account of a close encounter of the covid kind

No wonder everyone loves Michael Rosen, especially the nations children, and their parents. There is a beautiful clarity and authenticity in his writing, something open to wonder, lacking in mask or cynicism. And that is a sense of the personality of the man, coming through in his writing.

As is known, Rosen contracted Covid, very seriously, in March 2020. He very nearly died. Early advice ‘don’t visit your doctor, don’t go to A + E’ and all the rest coupled with the inevitable lack of understanding of the quick potential lethal progression of the virus, where hypoxia could occur whilst breathing might seem to be reasonable, meant that if it weren’t for the quick action of a neighbour, also a GP, Rosen would have been one of the early casualties of March 2020. As it was, he spent 47 days on a ventilator in an induced coma. His chances of recovering were estimated as 50/50.

This is a wonderful book, revealing, often laugh out loud – he takes himself lightly, and the world and people in it, seriously. There is almost overwhelming warmth, gratitude and appreciation for the kindness of humanity – particularly as embodied by all who cared for him as he flirted with death in its Covid guise.
I have stressed Michael Rosen's good humour as possibly there might be those who would think 'oh I don't want to read something which will be bound to be distressing and sad' Well, of COURSE there will be deep distress and sadness, terror, confusion and anger stalking through the pages, but this is NOT only that. Curiously, it is a fully, 'that is LIFE', kind of book. It reminded me, in many ways, of why, in Japanese culture, the appreciation of cherry blossom is seen so profoundly - the importance of cherishing, appreciating, deeply, fully everything life holds. Including its brevity. Rosen is so, so clearly an inhabiter, not a denier, and because of this, even in sorrow and loss there is SUCH a depth of joy - and merriment is a part of that

I choked up, often, reading it and, as often, snorted in delight at his slid in, disarming humour – such as

They’ve been worried
About my low blood pressure
But they’ve brought me the Daily Mail
So it’ll be fine in just a moment

Mostly written in poetry, there are also sections where his wife, Emma has contributed accounts, and, most movingly, the journal Rosen received from his medical teams, when he was discharged from hospital. This is such a breathtakingly kind action. The ICU teams, with patients in induced comas write an account of their patients, as if talking to them, rather than just medical notes. This (if they recover) gives them back their missing time. Rosen (like others) has lost himself, for that part of his life, and the emotional understanding demonstrated by showing that others, caregivers, were still seeing them as whole and individual people, not just as a medical emergency, is overwhelming and inspiring.

This is a book of great gratitude to those who deserve it – great anger too, against those who dismiss or dismissed this disease, the fake newsers, the disease deniers, the conspiracy theorists, the governments who dilly dallied, downplayed, took actions too late.

Finally there are Chris Riddell’s wonderful illustrations. Which were as much of a reason for me requesting this book as Rosen, his story and his writing.

Highly highly recommended. A most life affirming, thought provoking, inspiring book, beautifully expressed – and wickedly, disarmingly funny amidst all that

I received this as an ARC with more than usual gratitude to the publishers, via NetGalley

This is a wonderful book that I flew through. Reading just what Michael Rosen went through while fighting for his life due to covid and the notes from staff who cared for him are a real eye opener to just how serious the coronavirus is and how much all the staff cared for their patients and how hard they have fought this awful disease. This book will leave it's mark on me for a very long time, I loved it.

As one of Michael Rosen’s twitter followers, I watched with dread the news of his hospitalisation and induced coma. Each update was read with hope, but the news wasn’t great for such a prolonged time that I doubted he could make it. I am so glad my pessimism was misplaced and that he has produced this beautiful chronicle of his deterioration, the blank time (where letters from the intensive care staff who watched over him take over the narrative) and his painfully slow recovery from Covid 19.

He applies his customary light touch and self deprecating humour to recall some of the horrible situations he has travelled through. His love and appreciation of his family and the NHS staff who both saved and helped him to rebuild his life are evident throughout. Understandably a hint of anger too- toward a government that seemed prepared to sacrifice lives...

‘If the government had done what the WHO
suggested, I wonder
perhaps these things wouldn’t have happened
to me
nor the thousands of others like me
nor to the thousands who’ve died’


An important and powerful book about a personal experience of the Covid 19 pandemic. This very much needed to be written as part of the social history of this time. The illustrations from Chris Riddell are also wonderful.

I am very grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for honest opinions. Despite having this on my kindle, I have ordered the hardback- a record of this period to carry into the future.

This was an emotional, beautifully written book about Michael Rosen’s battle with Covid-19. The poems were beautiful and highlighted what he was going through. The letters and notes written by the NHS staff who cared for him, especially when he was placed on a ventilator, showed how the NHS often go above and beyond and that they care not just for the person’s health but also for them as a person. Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and the author for a chance to read and review this wonderful book.

An enlightening collection of nurses notes, tweets and poems describing Michael Rosens' stay in hospital and his road to recovery having contracted Covid 19.
It brought me to tears and gave me more information about the way patients are treated in hospital and the enormous efforts out in by the staff.

A beautiful book, a mixture of poems and the notes from his nurses, along with brilliant illustrations. Full of hope, the dark and the light of life, this is a poignant reminder of how fragile and precious life is.

A whole new point of view on the pandemic that has changed our lives this last year. A collection of poems and writings from Michael and the notes in his diary from NHS staff when writing while he was in the icu with Coronavirus.
This is a real insight into how life was for him and many others- beautiful and scary and heartbreaking. This powerful collection is something I would love to look back on in years to come to remember how things were. Our wonderful NHS are the stars of this book alongside the author and it has been a privilege to read it