A fascinating and insightful book about the multitude of minor ailments that humans live with every day of the year, and what we can learn about them.

'Think about it: when was the last time you enjoyed a day of perfect health? A day when there was nothing - absolutely nothing - wrong with you?

I'm not talking about the kind of illness that forces you to take to your bed or make an appointment to see the doctor. I'm talking about the mild, irksome, distracting illnesses and aches and pains that we put up with constantly. The NHS helpfully issues a leaflet listing twenty-one official minor ailments, but from my experience it's woefully incomplete. So I've made my own list, and it has nearly 100 entries.'

'...an unexpected literary genre: the compulsively readable medical reference book. You start with the things that currently plague you, and then you keep on reading, happily passing entire afternoons absorbed in the odd and revolting things our bodies serve up...If laughter is the best medicine, a dose of Lawton ought to cure most of this stuff.' Mary Roach

One of the many strange effects of the 2020 pandemic has been to make us much more vigilant about the state of our health in general and about minor symptoms in particular. And this, in turn, has made us more conscious that we all feel slightly out of sorts a great deal of the time; maybe even every day.

This book is not about what happens when we're ill with something sufficiently serious to send us to the doctor or confine us to bed. Instead, it focuses on the multitude of mild, irksome, distracting illnesses, aches and pains with which we all put up with constantly.

Covering 120 ailments, Graham explains the latest scientific thinking about everything from blackheads to chilblains; dead legs to haemorrhoids; ear wax to hiccups; and hay fever to heat stroke. It's a mixture of science and history, with a light touch, and provides practical information about each ailment for the reader.