Shadows in Wonderland, By Colin Ludlow

This salutary book should be prescribed to every worker in the NHS – and to all politicians, too. For TV producer Ludlow, a "routine" procedure led to a five-month hospital ordeal, MRSA infection and near-death episodes. Patient's-eye views of the "madness and magnificence" of the service are not novel. But he offers shrewd, telling insights into all aspects of care, and its failure: from deadly jargon to the gulf between TV medicine and the messier reality.