Adam Kay, writer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Adam Kay is a writer whose memoir This is Going to Hurt; Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor won the Book of the Year prize at the National Book Awards and has sold over three million copies. It was adapted for television as a BBC series that won four BAFTAs this year, including Adam’s award for best drama writer. Adam was born in Brighton in 1980 and studied medicine at Imperial College London. In 2004 he started working as a junior doctor, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology. In 2010 he left medicine following a catastrophic incident in surgery. He had kept a diary throughout his medical career, partly to help cope with the long shifts and stressful environment that came with life as a hospital doctor. In 2016 Adam read from his diaries for a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the positive reception he received from audiences encouraged him to use them as the basis for a memoir. The book became a publishing sensation, and Adam has published further books and enjoyed considerable success with his live performances. Adam lives in Oxfordshire with his husband James. DISC ONE: Chopsticks - Liberace DISC TWO: Mis-shapes - Pulp DISC THREE: Chopin: Waltz No. 14 in E Minor, Op. posth. (no intro) Composed by Frédéric Chopin and performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy DISC FOUR: Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat - Stubby Kaye, Original Cast Chorus (from Guys and Dolls) DISC FIVE: Forgot About Dre - Dr Dre & Eminem DISC SIX: Poisoning Pigeons - Tom Lehrer DISC SEVEN: A Lady of a Certain Age - The Divine Comedy DISC EIGHT: San Diego Serenade - Tom Waits BOOK CHOICE: York Notes for the Complete Works of Shakespeare LUXURY ITEM: A diary and pen CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: San Diego Serenade - Tom Waits Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.3	Music Radio Music
0:44.8	My cast away this week is the writer Adam Kay.
0:47.6	In 2017 his memoir, This Is Going To Hurt, Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor,
0:52.8	became a literary sensation.
0:55.0	It was a Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year,
0:58.9	won the Book of the Year prize at the National Book Awards and has sold over three million copies.
1:04.2	The story of his life on the wards was hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking.
1:09.3	Often in the space of a single page, it was adapted for television as a BBC series that won four
1:15.1	bafters earlier this year, including his award for best drama writer, which he dedicated to junior doctors.
1:21.7	He was born in Brighton, where his father was a GP who encouraged him to study medicine.
1:26.2	After several years as a hospital doctor, everything changed.
1:29.6	When a catastrophic incident in surgery led to him leaving his vocation.
1:34.0	To help him make sense of what had happened, he turned to the diaries he'd been keeping since he
1:38.5	became a medic. He says, it was going up to my hospital on call room and writing down the silly
1:44.4	things, the disgusting things, the funny things. I didn't really know this was why I was doing it,
1:49.7	but in retrospect it's totally clear. I was looking for the shards of light among the dark.
	...

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