This was, unfortunately, a DNF for me. I have tried a few times since my request approval to get into it and after another stint that wasn't my cup of tea, I have officially given up. Keep this in mind if evaluating my opinion for validity- I'm not reviewing on a book I've read in its entirety. I didn't find humour in my short attempt and felt the anecdotes ran on, a bit like a convoluted story from my chatterbox after a particularly exciting day - lots of detail but not quite sure where the story began or ended or what the actual point of it may have been - it felt a bit disconnected and rambling (much like this review, apparently.) I'm grateful for the opportunity to read a review copy, but in honesty, it was a miss for me.

Adventures With Dr Sparrow...
Anecdotes from a former RAF medic turned rural GP, Dr Sparrow. Often amusing, sometimes not so much, frequently quite touching but laced with a rather dark humour.

If there’s anyone left who still believes that doctors are all knowing, super clever and powerful will soon have that notion dispelled if they read this! Full of anecdotes, some funny and some a little disturbing when you discover who is let loose to treat Joe Public. Very worrying when they seem to know only slightly more than their patients. The book is disjointed, meandering from one thing to another with altogether too many mentions of booze. Interesting enough but it hasn’t tempted me to read the other books in this series.

My thanks to Netgalley and Duckworth Publishers for a copy of “ Country Doctor” for an honest review.

I love anecdotal books that give you an insight into other people’s lives in different occupations but unfortunately I didn’t really warm to Michael Sparrow .There were funny moments, at times seeming hard to believe , but on the whole the book seemed a little self indulgent and disjointed , and it didn’t hold my attention.
It passed the time but I have read much better books on the same theme lately, and I’ll be recommending those instead .

Funny real at times eye opening.This country doctor shares his life his story .He shares moments where is unhappy cranky other moments where he is brave .There are hilarious situations times where you are glad he’s not your dr.Realky enjoyed this cranky honest open drs. memories #netgalley#countrydoctor.

No, this is not a rip off James Herriot book. What you'll find is a true life story of a general practice doctor responsible for the health of many while trying to figure out his own life. You will hear his antics while in school and wonder how he ever made it through to practice medicine. Then you find yourself emotionally touched by his everyday determination to provide the best care possible. A really good read that will have you recommending it to your friends and family....all the same people you recommended that James Herriot series to.

I enjoyed this book. It might not have been quite as much about the life of a country doctor as perhaps the title and blurb suggested, but it was an interesting collection of anecdotes from the student and RAF days of the author, together with some more recent escapades.
Michael Sparrow has a great sense of black humour and his writing is a delight to read. He comes over as optimistic and determined, both important qualities in a doctor I imagine. He is the first to recognise the ridiculousness of some of the situations he's found himself in, and that's nice as it means you laugh with rather than at him.
Entertaining and eye-opening, it's a lively read.

The author's experiences as a Country Doctor that are highlighted in this book are funny for the most part. The author did focus a lot on his time as a student in writing this. However, the stories were a nice and relaxing read.

Darkly humourous and well written, I enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

As the author himself points out, these are not the gentle tales of a certain Darrowby vet, so anyone expecting soft, self-deprecating humour is in for a bit of a rude awakening!

Michael Sparrow fills us in on anecdotes from his training and his various work placements in hospitals, the army and as a GP, and does so with the sharp, black humour of someone who has seen far too much tragedy and human suffering.

The reader gets insight into a world of alcohol and drug abuse, negligence, murder and downright stupidity… and that’s just the doctors! But Dr Sparrow is by no means bringing the profession into disrepute – instead he shows us the toll paid via their own physical and mental health by the caring professions, simply because they do care. The author actually doesn’t come across very well at the start of the book, as he portrays himself as an unwinning combination of cocky and dim, and the humour feels somewhat forced and brash. However, once you get used to the tongue-in-cheek, side-eye style of writing, you come to appreciate his candour and his willingness to sacrifice his pride for the sake of a good story.

Most winning of all, as the book progresses each story is increasingly invested with a light-hearted, wry humour that carries the reader through the book as buoyantly as it must have carried the author through his medical career. There is no wallowing in the horrors and tragedies; no bemoaning the fate of modern medicine and belittling contemporary colleagues. Instead there is a Pythonesque insistence on seeing the funny side to every disaster or mishap, and on seeing the silver lining of redeeming qualities in even the dourest doctor or dullest student.

Which is lucky really, as if you took these stories at face value, you would hesitate to ever set foot in a hospital or surgery again! At which point I suppose all the staff could repair to the pub early and… hmmm, I think I’ve seen through Dr Sparrow’s cunning plan! 😉



In our clinical years, should we survive that far – and by no means everyone does – we get to touch the public, although mostly in places we would each rather we didn’t have to.

– Michael Sparrow, Country Doctor

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

This memoir is a collection of stories of a country GP and though most of them seem slightly unbelievable they are true!

From the ridiculous stories which one finds hard to believe true, to the self derision where the doctor wonders what he is doing in this profession, the book is a bit disjointed and rambling and though at most times funny it was not a book which actually held my interest.

I was disappointed that for the most part it seemed as if medical students missed classes or were too hungover to follow these classes. Dented my appreciation of doctors found in this story though right now my appreciation of all medical professionals are at its very height.

Michael Sparrow gives us an interesting look into what life in medical school and as a doctor was like for him. I did expect this to be more stories from his life after he became a doctor but it actually seemed to concentrate more on his student days. I found many of the stories laugh out loud funny and sniggered at a few others. I am not sure if it is because I was raised by someone in the medical profession or if I've just read enough but nothing I read was surprising as to what medical school was like or how it is to deal with patients everyday.

If you are expecting a feel good book that gives you the warm and fuzzies like James Herriot then you might want to skip this one. If you want a book that makes you laugh with the ridiculousness that medical school, military service and dealing with patients provides pick this book up.

Although a medical doctor, not a veterinarian, Country Doctor is reminiscent of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small. From thoughts of becoming a doctor, "Just Don't", through medical school escapades, to becoming a responsible adult with a medical practice, Michael Sparrow is immensely entertaining.

Country Doctor is an easy and enjoyable read. I would recommend this title to anyone who enjoys real life essays.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

#CountryDoctor#NetGalley

Country Doctor was a no for me. I was crude in places with very dark humor that wasn't all that funny. It had a few plus moments of actually good things for his patients, but too few for this reader. I found at times I just wanted to delete the book, but I toiled on until the end with no improvement. Giving it 2 stars is generous, sorry a James Herriot, of Yorkshire vet fame you are not, although you seem to be a wannabe.

Country Doctor, originally published in 2002, when the author had recently retired, is part of a series of memoirs about his medical career. Described on the front as “Hilarious true stories from a country practice”, in reality it’s a jumbled series of anecdotes, none of which paint him in a good light, interspersed with musings about the difficulties inherent in being a doctor.
I got this from NetGalley so it seems it’s been republished recently alongside his other books. I note that the NG page is full of 4 and 5 star reviews, while on GoodReads they are mostly 2 and 3 stars, which sadly is what it’s getting from me.

Normally I put the same review on GR, NG, and Amazon but in this case I’ll be leaving the personal aspects of my review out from what I post on NG, and as per my reviewing policy won’t be putting this on Amazon unless NetGalley or the publisher specifically ask me to (which is unlikely as it’s unlikely to help their sales.) I’ve just read a few posts recently on a Facebook group I’m in, about whether or not one should leave negative reviews - it seems I’m in the minority as many readers seem not to want to hurt an author’s feelings - well I was given this for a review and there was no requirement that it be positive. My main duty is to other readers. Sparrow sounds like he’s got thick enough skin to be able to cope with my feedback, if he even reads it.

I was interested to read this - and feel well qualified to review it - as a British trained GP - although I ended up in New Zealand rather than Cornwall, and moved out of GP five years ago. The timelines are confusing, as he seems to have graduated in the late 1970s (I qualified in 1993) but he must’ve retired early if he wrote this in 2002 - he doesn’t go into this. Both medicine in general and General Practice In particular have changed enormously since then, although I haven’t worked in the UK since 2002 - but have kept up enough with the BMJ (British Medical Journal) to know that however bad it was then, being a doctor in the UK is ten times worse now.

Purported to be about life as a rural family doctor, this doesn’t actually cover that until about three quarters of the way through, instead being mostly a badly organised collection of anecdotes about the author’s time at medical school and as a junior hospital doctor, then as a GP in the RAF, including a stint in Belize - which he (unforgivably) describes in chapter headings as being in South America! (I knew that it was in Central America even before I became a travel doctor, and I haven’t even been there.)

I’m not sure who he’s trying to impress but the constant references to drinking, all the time, including while on duty, go way beyond normal Jack the Lad student drunkenness (and I trained in Edinburgh so I know enough about that) and become both boring and distasteful. Similarly, all his comments about his own professional inadequacy/incompetence - which I think are meant to come across as amusing self-deprecation - would be grounds for a charge of bringing the profession into disrepute if this had happened more recently. His collusion in various cover-ups - which he expresses vague regret about - are shameful and sometimes even horrific. Even his attitude to his elective was pretty appalling. To portray this dishonesty as normal and acceptable in a book published now does no one any favours.

In the last quarter of the book, Sparrow finally tells some tales about his patients in General Practice, many of which triggered memories of anecdotes of my own, as could probably all GPs. I could probably write a book of my own about these, except I know I’m not “hilarious” so I won’t bother. Many of his cases were deeply sad, and these later chapters do reveal some glimpses of some maturity and insight - especially the chapter on suicide and addiction within the profession. He soon reverts to sniggery toilet-humour type anecdotes, however, about objects removed from orifices. I guess that these are what sell? Then we’re back in Belize and another rumination about a traumatic experience that he characteristically brushes off and turns into a joke.

I swithered between 2 and 3 stars here - on the plus side, Sparrow can write, and some of his tales were certainly illuminating. Ultimately I’m rounding down, because I didn’t really enjoy reading this and can’t recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this free review copy.

It is a light hearted book. It describes very critical events of doctors patient relationship in a light hearted and really funny way.
It is a very hilarious book and Dr Sparrow has unique style of writing.
He describes situations in a way that makes you laugh.
You read the sentences, then meaning sets in and then there is giggling sensation.
Volantarily he undermines his own IQ and talent and makes fun of himself.
And he has really emotional description of his friends in between.
I am not sure all events are true, but they are all funny.
Amount of alcohol that he takes is above normal.
It should be read without any judgement of description of patients and diseases in a very light and joke like pattern.
Book is hard to put down and takes you to countryside where doctor sparrow treats his patients with his limited resources.
He has written three more books. I will also like to read them. But sadly they are currently unavailable on amazon.in.
It is a really funny book that is highly recommend to all readers, especially to those with medical backgrounds.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.

An interesting, comical read about (of course) a Country Doctor, who no doubt gets himself into funny shenanigans. This book made me chuckle here and there, but wouldn't be something I would normally pick up.

If you enjoy blunt, british humour, you will enjoy this book. I just may recommend it to my father in law!

The first thing that I thought when reading this book was, "Boy, I'm glad he is not my GP!" because it didn't sound like he got up to much at med school, other than trouble and drinking.
The second thing I thought was how brave he was admitting his shortcomings and errors so publicly.
The third thing was. "Is that his real name?"
And so begins our journey down the memory path of Dr Michael Sparrow. There were parts that were laugh out loud funny interspersed with more serious, thoughtful points. I did not enjoy the med school drunken antics part, but later on his anecdotes were very good, although at times it did feel to me he was trying to channel James Herriot's method of storytelling.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

You'll Never Look At Doctors The Same Again
If you enjoy British humor, you'll enjoy this book. The book is full of the author's humorous accounts of assorted happenings in his life and career. Many of the stories involve drinking vast amounts of alcohol. Many involve dealing with associates who do not do their job creating havoc at the hospital. I think that that the best way to approach this memoir is with the certain knowledge that many doctors pass their classes with a grade of D. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

I was interested in this book as I was after some laughs and it struck me as an 'All Creatures Great and Small' type book, good stories and lots of laughs. In fact, I remember laughing so hard I couldn't breathe when reading James Herriot's books many years ago.

But Michael Sparrow's offering was disappointing. The earlier stories were self-indulgent, involving stories of him drinking too much and being a bit of a lad - thought the whole thing was a bit juvenile and much of it too unreal to believe. The book read a bit better as it developed, but again it all seemed to focus on him, his views and his part in the story rather than let the characters and stories speak for themselves. To be sure, there are plenty of funny stories in health.

The anecdotes were a bit all over the place and they weren't allowed to develop, they were too short and often contained numerous other bits and pieces and interjections.

To me, this book's only saving grace was the odd interesting medical fact - but all in all it was quite disappointing.

I would like to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for a review