Book info

• Title Blood, Sweat and Tea
• Author Tom Reynolds
• Year 2006
• Genre Memoir

Is there anyone who hasn't wondered about the state of the occupant of an ambulance, screaming along with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? Have you? And have you wondered about the other people inside the ambulance, maybe fighting to save the patient's life? Or have you considered that the ambulance may be another 'maternataxi' ordered by a woman who can't be bothered to book a real cab and who then complains she can't smoke on the way to hospital? And that the medical technician inside might just be desperate to get back home from a busy shift, to have a cup of tea and catch up with his blog? Meet Tom Reynolds. Tom is an Emergency Medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a blog of his daily working life since 2003 and his award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate. It is never less than compelling.

Thoughts

For a short while, I read the blog that this book emerged from, although I had never seen any of the posts that form the content here. I stopped reading the site because I found it quite depressing, so I don’t know why I thought the book would be any different.

It is well written, and paints a great picture of life in a London ambulance - as it turns out, that life is pretty grim. I’m no idiot, and know that people make life hard for the emergency services when they really should grow a brain and move out of the way for those saving our lives. I felt like the book could maybe have done with a few more positive stories though, just to balance out the ranting.

All that being said, I still feel lucky to have a glimpse of a life I would never normally know about, and I do intend to read the sequel (albeit after a lengthy break while I build my optimism of the human race back up again). It’s also spurred me on to find more true life tales in the Kindle store, and let me tell you, there are quite a few to choose from!

Rating: 3 / 5