Dirty Work

Surgeons are meant to save lives, but Nancy is a special kind of surgeon. When she makes a mistake in the operating theatre she is summoned to explain herself to a tribunal and is forced to consider what it means to be a doctor who has killed as well as cured.

A lot of novels are called “brave”, and they aren’t. This one is.

A brilliantly intense, thought-provoking story

Gripping, well-researched and elegantly written

This courageous and interesting author is that unusual thing, a contemporary moralist

Bold, brave, and uncomfortable… it's a gripping read

The subject matter is brave, the moral perspective complex, the writing vivid

Weston has an unwavering passion for the truth as well as the courage to tell it.

Weston excels at writing about medicine precisely…but with great subtlety of tone that allows readers to appreciate the human faultlines that lie beneath conventional portraits of doctoring.

Weston is a superb writer of lucid and evocative prose… This is not a dark book so much as a deeply thoughtful one

Gabriel Weston was born in 1970. She qualified as a doctor in 2000 and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2003. Her first book, Direct Red , was published in 2009. It was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the PEN/Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. She lives in London and continues to practise as a part-time ENT surgeon.