Wednesday 3 June 2009

Blood, Sweat and Tea

Blood, Sweat and Tea, by Tom Reynolds

A beautifully written insight into the stresses, strains and successes of working for the London Ambulance service. Is there anyone who hasn't wondered about the state of the occupant of an ambulance, screaming along with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? Have you? And have you wondered about the other people inside the ambulance, maybe fighting to save the patient's life? Or have you considered that the ambulance may be another 'maternataxi' ordered by a woman who can't be bothered to book a real cab and who then complains she can't smoke on the way to hospital? And that the medical technician inside might just be desperate to get back home from a busy shift, to have a cup of tea and catch up with his blog? Meet Tom Reynolds. Tom is an Emergency Medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a blog of his daily working life since 2003 and his award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate. It is never less than compelling. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.

I heartily recommend it.

Buy it Here:
Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance


More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea

The sequel to the bestselling memoir Blood, Sweat & Tea. Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and witness the last moments of a dying man in the afternoon. He deals with road accidents, knife attacks, domestic violence, drug overdoses, neglect and suffering. And you think you're having a bad day at work? Tom blogs about his experiences at the end of each shift. His Random Acts of Reality website has a huge following with over 30,000 visitors every day. He is an internet legend and a remarkable writer. His first book, Blood, Sweat & Tea came out of nowhere to be a surprise bestseller in 2006. Readers were stunned by the stories he had to tell and impressed by the sheer quality of his writing. Critics who sneer at blogs-to-books have never read this one. More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea charts the past two years of Tom's life as an ambulance worker. He is tired, he is frustrated and he is more pissed off than ever but he still manages to capture the more moving, heartwarming and inspirational moments alongside the chaos.

Buy it Here:
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea

Or download it for nothing to see if you like it:

4 comments:

aims said...

Wow! I need to put these two books on my must read list and hand it to The Man.

How interesting!

Good review Rachel. Very good.

Rachel Green said...

Not a review as such, Aims, just product information. I've not read the second one yet.

Unknown said...

*chuckles* Another blog I must begin following. :)

Rachel Green said...

He is rather good, isn't he.