Big Issue in the North Summer Reading Recommendation A man boards a train, hoping to see the daughter he has heard nothing from for seven years. As he travels towards his destination, he restlessly revisits the events that blew apart their seemingly perfect world. With acute insight, sparkling imagination, and vividly arresting prose, Phil Whitaker explores the very best and worst that families can do, and asks: what are the forces that shape us; and, against powerful traumas reverberating down the generations, can true love prevail?

What is a Doctor? will answer that question but also its close companion, 'what is a patient?' What are the ramifications of the steady shift away from patient-centred care, where long-standing and motivated GPs develop 360-degree knowledge of their patients, and often entire families? Who really benefits from the 'polypharmacy' approach of piling on medication after medication for the increasing number of people with multiple morbidities? Using stories and case studies from across his career, Phil Whitaker will offer a damning portrait of political interference even when based on good intentions - and what might yet be done.