'Hard to imagine a better book, or a more original one.writes at least as well as many good novelists.funny, and honest, and beautifully done.' Claire Tomalin 'Anyone remotely interested in medicine should read her book. In bringing us a front-line report from an often alien territory, she does for the practise of surgery what Anna Funder in Stasiland did for East Germany. I hope the judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize are taking note.' Nicholas Shakespeare, Telegraph 'Her wisdom, empathy, morality and self-awareness are very revealing. Her writing is as incisive, precise and clean as keyhole surgery.

' Iain Finlayson, The Times 'A beautiful, haunting and upsetting book. Weston's prose is cool and elegant.' Sunday Telegraph 'Her description of the struggle to remain individual and hence moral is her real achievement. This, to me, is what female writing has to do, and she does it with style and humour and beauty.' Rachel Cusk 'This is a valuable and unflinching account, for all its grimness and gruesomeness, since it so clearly tells us the truth.' Chris Hart, The Times.