Words of praise!
“A wonderful anthology to celebrate the NHS, which is itself the best poem a country has ever written”
Stephen Fry
“Here is the big, beautiful, beating heart of the NHS as you’ve never seen it before. Tender, sinewy, passionate, intimate. What a book – what a celebration of all that unites us. Truly wonderful”
Rachel Clarke
“Deeply moving poetry from the people who work to keep us whole and healthy and happy and who care for us when we’re broken”
Mark Haddon
“This is a beautiful book: heartfelt and intimate”
Adam Kay
“The very heart of who we are and what we are here for. An exciting and wonderful book”
Michael Rosen
“Like the NHS itself, this poetry collection is full of humanity, compassion and meaning”
Christie Watson
“A wonderful collection. It is utterly humbling to experience our world of healthcare through the eyes and ears of poet-practitioners. Some team members are exhausted and others exhilarated; some reflect at the very edges of life, both its beginning and its end; some are wide-eyed with hope and others hold us in the broad sweep of their wisdom; new and hesitant; experienced and confident; weary and cynical; all joining hands to create a bridge of caring. I particularly relish the inclusion of poems from clerical, housekeep- ing, portering and other oft-unsung colleagues who keep the show on the road every day and night. Every NHS team should discover who their poets are (there will always be one!); I’d recommend every health-care team to relish this book together. It’s a five-senses celebration of our workforce, our ideals and our sense of pride in being people who provide a health service for the very people we come from. Of us, by us and for us: our NHS”
Kathryn Mannix
“Every ward and waiting room should have a copy”
Simon Armitage
“The NHS and Poetry. Healing for body and heart. What could be more important!”
Gillian Clarke
Reviews
NHS poetry anthology to be published on World Poetry Day
The Bookseller
These are the Hands – Poems from the Heart of the NHS
The Nursing Times
Poem of the month: The drive home by Craig Coyle
The Guardian
‘Everyone is pulling together’: poems by NHS workers to raise money for Covid-19 appeal
The Guardian
Poems for the NHS: ‘the best poem a country has ever written’
The Psychologist
These are the Hands: ed. by Deborah Alma and Dr Katie Amiel, Fair Acre Press
Write Outloud
These are the Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS
Corpus – New Zealand
These are the hands poems from the heart of the NHS
British Journal of General Practice