Direct Red : A Surgeon's Story

How does it feel to hold someone''s life in your hands?

What is it like to cut into someone else''s body?

What is it like to stand by, powerless, while someone dies because of the incompetence of your seniors?

How do you tell a beautiful young man who seems perfectly fit that he has only a few days left to live?

Gabriel Weston worked as a surgeon on the NHS frontlines; a woman in a world dominated by male egos. Her world was one of disease, suffering and extraordinary pressure where moral ambiguity and clinical detachment were necessary for survival. Startling and honest, her account combines a fierce sense of human dignity with compassion and insight, illuminating scenes of life and death the rest of us rarely glimpse.

''Her wisdom, empathy, morality and self-awareness are very revealing... Her writing is as incisive, precise and clean as keyhole surgery'' The Times

''Brave and uncomfortable'' Guardian