Do No Harm

'Enthralling' GUARDIAN

'Incredibly absorbing ... astonishingly candid' Bill Bryson

Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature

Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; Duff Cooper Prize; Wellcome Book Prize; Guardian First Book Award; and Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize

Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

What is it like to be a brain surgeon?

How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?

How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?

DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions.

Winner of PEN/Ackerley Prize 2015
Short-listed for Costa Biography Award 2014

“Neurosurgery has met its Boswell in Henry Marsh. Painfully honest about the mistakes that can 'wreck' a brain, exquisitely attuned to the tense and transient bond between doctor and patient, and hilariously impatient of hospital management, Marsh draws us deep into medicine's most difficult art and lifts our spirits. It's a superb achievement.”

DO NO HARM is an elegant series of meditations ... At heart, this is a book about wisdom and experience

- DAILY TELEGRAPH

An enthralling read ... a testimony of wonder ... Marsh's style is admirably clear, concise and precise ... There is no forcing of a narrative arc or a happy ending, just the quotidian frustrations, sorrows, regrets and successes of neurosurgical life - GUARDIAN

A searingly frank book which tells the story of a danger-fraught occupation the way it is. Every chapter is a tightrope walk ... Has you on the edge of your seat ... Even more fascinating is his candour about his own feelings ... Henry Marsh's patients are living, individual people - he makes us feel we know them

- DAILY MAIL

By and large, [DO NO HARM] contains stories not of triumph, or of the author's skill and expertise, but of the emotional and psychological toll exacted when things go horribly wrong ... His understanding of the nature of suffering is deep and personal - NEW STATESMAN

Henry Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St George's Hospital in London in 1987, where he still works full time. He has been the subject of two major documentary films, YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS, which won the ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY GOLD MEDAL, and THE ENGLISH SURGEON, featuring his work in the Ukraine, which won an EMMY. He was made a CBE in 2010. He is married to the anthropologist and writer Kate Fox. Visit his website at /

'Enthralling' GUARDIAN 'Incredibly absorbing ... astonishingly candid' Bill Bryson Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; Duff Cooper Prize; Wellcome Book Prize; Guardian First Book Award; and Slightly Foxed Best First Biography PrizeLonglisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction What is it like to be a brain surgeon?How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.