Fighting for Life: The Twelve Battles that Made Our NHS, and the Struggle for Its Future

(Hardback)

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A gripping, provocative exploration of the National Health Service, told through the most critical moments in its history, and published for the 75th anniversary of its foundation Since its foundation in 1948, the NHS has been a cornerstone of British life - we are born into it, we are looked after by it, and quite often we die in it. From the sexual revolution of the '60s to the first 'test tube baby', from the Mental Health Act to the Coronavirus crisis, it has made history again and again - shaping our society and culture. Meanwhile, the NHS has also become a battleground for some of the fiercest political contests of our time, either perceived as a national treasure that needs to be preserved at all costs, or as a lumbering piece of state machinery in need of renovation. In Fighting for Life, award-winning journalist Isabel Hardman tells the story of a beloved institution through the people who keep it alive - its nurses, its doctors, its patients and the politicians who decide its fate.Drawing on interviews with key decision-makers, from former Prime Ministers and Health Secretaries to NHS bosses, as well as access to the patients and keyworkers at the beating heart of the health service, she reveals with trademark incisiveness a chequered history that is by turns uplifting and alarming. Cutting through sentimentality and sloganeering, she shows us how our NHS really works, and what it means for our future.

Reviews

This remarkable and immensely readable book looks back at the highs and lows of the NHS's first 75 years, and asks critical questions about its future. Thought-provoking, despairing, eye-opening, and inspiring in equal measure -- Sir David Haslam
Passionate, deeply researched and page-turningly full of good stories, this is so good one is tempted to say it is the book the NHS has always deserved -- Andrew Marr
A superb, rollercoaster account of the NHS . . . This completely riveting and scrupulously researched book shows how, just like its patients, the NHS sways precariously between money, morality and mortality, and trust, trauma and triumph -- Juliet Nicolson
A compelling thriller . . . Fighting for Life provides vivid and urgently needed context to the familiar daily news stories about the crises in the NHS -- Steve Richards
A must-read for anyone interested in how the NHS started and why we have ended up where we are. A thoroughly fascinating, comprehensive and critical analysis -- Dr Ranj Singh
A fascinating, insightful and forensic history of the NHS by a journalist who understands the politics as well as the policy of the health service. Essential reading -- Rachel Sylvester
This is a sensational and much-needed book: funny, intelligent and so beautifully written that it doesn't read like normal non-fiction . . . thorough, scholarly and above all readable -- Chris van Tulleken

Author Bio

Isabel Hardman is the Assistant Editor of the Spectator and author of books including Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, a Sunday Times bestseller. In 2015 she was named the youngest ever Political Journalist of the Year by the Political Studies Association. She appears regularly on TV and radio, including Have I Got News for You, The Andrew Marr Show, The News Quiz, Today programme, Question Time and Sky News. She also writes columns for The Times, The Guardian, i, The Observer, Evening Standard, and the Daily Telegraph.