More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea [Paperback]

Tom Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2010

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. Tom blogs about his experiences at the end of each shift. His Random Acts of Reality website has a huge following with more than 30,000 visitors every day. Here, Tom charts the past two years of his 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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Reynolds began work for the National Health Service when he was 23 and specialized as an Accident & Emergency nurse. He moved to the London Ambulance Service when he discovered that "he wanted to "torture the patients in A&E." In his own words, this is "not healthy." He has kept his critically acclaimed blog since 2003.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK (April 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007334877
• ISBN-13: 978-0007334872
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

On July 22, 2003, an emergency medical technician living in London began writing a blog under the pseudonym Tom Reynolds. One mention by a writer for the Guardian and that blog has changed his life--with more people coming to know him as Tom Reynolds than as Brian Kellett. (http://randomreality.blogware.com/blog)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thumbnail sketches of life., February 13, 2010

By 

J. Lesley "(Judy)" (Midsouth, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea (Kindle Edition)

Tom Reynolds has given each of us the opportunity to see what life is like for people who drive the ambulances to medical emergencies. Granted, once he gets to the location, the "emergency" might be an upset stomach or a runny nose, but it might also be a tiny baby who has died in it's crib.

This book has no plot, no named characters, no chronology, but what it does have is a realism that can only be achieved by someone who is living these events each and every day of his career. The incidents related here are from the blog Tom Reynolds writes concerning his job with the ambulance service in a section of east London. On my Kindle this book is divided into 211 chapters with each "chapter" being devoted to a single entry of his blog. Each one is very short. They range all the way from the truly frivolous calls to those where he and his mates are unable to save the patient's life. Along the way he sometimes indulges in a little fanciful, playful writing about his job and he also vents his spleen about how the government is running the National Health Service. Also included is a lexicon of terms and abbreviations which will help the reader keep track of the various organizations and functions of the London Ambulance Service and a short note about the author, including his real name.

This is the second book utilizing information from Reynolds' blog. The first was Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance which is also available in book or Kindle form. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to see real life situations on a daily basis through the eyes of someone who is there and keeps going back.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It just goes to show you..., March 4, 2010

By 

George Angus "Tumblemoose" (Palmer, Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea (Kindle Edition)

Prehospital care must be the same the world over. I loved this. I was a paramedic in Los Angeles for a number of years and I can tell you that the author's depiction of events on the streets of London is not much different from the silliness and drama experienced on the streets of LA.

A kind mixture of cynicsm, drama, caring and reality make this book a wonderfully accurate reflection of the trials and tribulations faced by emergency providers every day.

The chapters are bite sized chunks that make it easy to set the book down and then pick up right where you left off.

If you're worried about blood and gore, don't let that stop you from getting this one. There's not much of that kind of thing. Plenty of human observation and Tom's observations are spot-on.

Okay, quit reading my silly review and go download the book, you'll be glad you did!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review for More Blood, More Sweat, and Another Cup of Tea, April 12, 2010

By 

mango113 (Charlottesville, VA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea (Kindle Edition)

This book contains lots of short stories and musings from the author's life as an EMT in London. I found some of the stories to be funny, some sad, some touching, and some to be anger-inducing. It was also interesting to get an insider look at the day to day workings of an ambulance crew. Knowing about the government hoops that they have to jump through and the people that they have to deal with makes me appreciate them a lot more.