The Lady Doctor

Practising GP Ian Williams provides us with another humane, pertinent and very funny look at life in a Welsh surgery in this eagerly awaited follow-up to his much-acclaimed graphic novel, The Bad Doctor.

Dr Lois Pritchard is a salaried partner at Llangandida Health Centre with Drs Iwan James (subject of The Bad Doctor) and Robert Smith. She also works two days a week in the local Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) clinic. She is 40, currently single, despite the attentions of her many admirers, and is, by her own admission, ‘not very good with relationships’. When her estranged mother makes a dramatic appearance on the scene, demanding a liver transplant, Lois has to confront her loyalties and make some hard decisions.From the moment we see Dr Lois nipping out behind the surgery for a fag, we know we are in for a behind-the-scenes warts-and-all comedy-drama. We meet a patient who regrets the Pinocchio face he had tattooed on his genitals; a man who resorts to desperate measures after being driven mad by his neighbours’ cats, and a prescription drug addict who plans to sue his previous doctors for failing to refuse him the drugs he demanded. Drugs – prescription, recreational, legal (coffee, alcohol, tobacco) – and behaviours and attitudes surrounding them – are a hot topic at Llangandida Health Centre.Hardening government attitudes towards drugs and addiction, and patients’ demands to benefit from the re-emergence of psychedelic therapeutic research, don’t make a doctor’s life any easier, but Ian Williams explores current medical issues and ethics with his trademark lightness of touch and wonderfully sly sense of humour, using his own experience as a practising GP to recreate the lives of both patients and health service practitioners.

‘Fascinating… offers the engrossing perspective of a hard-working and fallible physician. “The Lady Doctor”… illuminates something profound: her cool-headed receptivity to nominally depressing and gross manifestations of humanity. Williams reveals, in his careful attention to her work as a doctor, how seriously she understands her profession and how open she is to patients.’ – Hillary Chute, New York Times; ‘A remarkable contribution to the medical humanities. Combining apposite humour with realistic storytelling, Williams…raises critical questions to explore the boundaries of health and challenges in a female medical practitioner’s life.’ – Çağdaş Özerk Duman & Özge Ege Altan, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics; ‘Utterly hilarious in places (like laugh out loud- can’t stop yourself kind of funny), completely gripping (once I picked it up I didn’t put it down until I’d finished) and, I can imagine, very very accurate as to what being a GP is really like. It’s storytelling using pictures at its best. This is like the fictionalised graphic novel version of Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt so if you enjoyed that book and other medical memoirs like it then I think you’ll especially LOVE The Lady Doctor.’ – Busy Mama Book Club, Bookstagrammer; ‘A richly humane picture of a female doctor.’ – Graphic Reviews, Bookstagrammer; ‘The tone is wonderfully balanced: there are plenty of hilarious, somewhat raunchy scenes, but also a lot of heartfelt moments. The drawing style recalls Alison Bechdel’s.’ – Bookish Beck: Best Books of 2019; ‘[The Lady Doctor is] a tale with enough twists, turns and complexity to match any novel by the likes of Ian McEwan or Zadie Smith.’ – Viva Brighton; ‘The Lady Doctor is a great read in graphic novel form about the life of a fictional GP.’ – Dr Pat Harrold, Doc lit: The books by doctors that deserve a spot beside your deckchair, Irish Times; ‘I devoured The Lady Doctor by Ian Williams over the weekend – insightful, funny, sad and spot-on. Highly recommended to anyone who appreciates humour, illustration and simply life.’ – Dr Matt Morgan, author of Critical; ‘This book had me hooked from the start. Yes, it was indeed accessible and eminently readable, but be warned, it is hard to put down. The only reason it took me more than one sitting to devour it is that I had my own patients to attend to as well. As they say in scientific circles, it’s an important contribution to the field.’ – Dr Patricia Cantley, PULSE; ‘Focuses on themes of class, gender, and politics in a finely plotted, sometimes hilarious portrait that invites readers to understand the humanity as well as the barriers of their would-be healers. Adults and older teens interested in behind-the-scenes medical fiction will find this gripping.’ – Library Journal; ‘It’s very funny. I mean, properly, snorting-tea-out-your-nose-while-you’re-reading-it funny.’ – Teddy Jamieson for Herald Scotland; ‘He’s exceptionally good at working expression into his characters' faces, including one glorious sequence after a particularly bad inebriated life choice from Lois which me made howl with laughter. I really admire the careful attention paid to the construction of this work. I devoured it with delight and I do hope Ian holds to his original intention to make this a trilogy.’ – Page 45; ‘I thought (The Lady Doctor) was amazing and read through it all in one sitting. The characters were intriguing and even shocking at times, it held a realistic aspect of our GP service alongside a sly sense of humour. The illustrations are wonderful and portray this as both witty and realistic.’ – Jera’s Jamboree; ‘I have yet to read a bad graphic novel from Myriad, and I was impressed with The Lady Doctor.... it mixes levity perfectly with more serious issues. I really enjoyed the honesty as it shows that doctors aren't superhuman and are just people living their lives and doing a job.’ ¬– Ninja Book Box; ‘This is definitely a book which is worth the prescription: it relies on solidly realised and beautifully crafted characters who drive the story along and make it both very entertaining and thought-provoking too. It is very real and so very relatable.’ – Pipedream Comics; ‘Ian Williams is my hero and I wish he were my doctor, too!’ – David Small; ‘Ian Williams has done it again! It is impossible not to love the imperfect and fallible but deeply human heroine of this brilliant, and hilarious portrayal of a life in medicine.’ – Dr Ronan Kavanagh, DotMD Festival; ‘Ian Williams is the best thing to happen to medicine since penicillin.’ – Alison Bechdel; ‘The Lady Doctor asks pertinent questions about the fragility of the humans – both patients and staff - who populate the NHS. It's very funny and also often very sad.’ – Margaret McCartney, The Lancet; ‘Williams is a medical doctor with GP experience, and brings telling insight to his clever drawings and characters. Must-read.’ – Sussex Life magazine; ‘The Lady Doctor is... (an) insightful exploration of the realities of working in the medical profession made all the more affecting by the fragile humanity it encapsulates.’ – Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier; ‘Whether you are already a fan of the graphic medicine genre or not, this excellent book is highly recommended.’ – The Quietus; ‘At its heart it's a funny and relatable tale you’ll effortlessly enjoy in one sitting.’ – The Jester

Ian Williams is a comics artist, doctor and writer, now living in Brighton. He has studied Medicine, Medical Humanities and Fine Art and he founded the website GraphicMedicine.org, coining the term that has been applied to the interaction between the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare.Born of a Welsh family, Williams grew up in the north of England and studied Medicine in Cardiff before moving to North Wales, where he lived for over twenty years, to pursue his love of mountaineering. He worked as a doctor while developing a side career as a painter and printmaker, exhibiting nationally and internationally. He undertook an MA in Medical Humanities and wrote a dissertation on medical narrative in comics and graphic novels.Williams’s attempt to find some common ground between his two careers led to the creation of his own comic strips in 2007, using the nom de plume ‘Thom Ferrier’ to maintain some anonymity while still working in rural general practice.Populated by a cast of flawed characters, and shot through with gallows humour, his stories explore the darker side of medicine, revealing the harsh realities of human interaction and behaviour during times of stress and fear. The Bad Doctor, his debut graphic novel (Myriad, 2014), was highly commended by the British Medical Association at the Medical Book Awards 2015. His latest graphic novel, The Lady Doctor, was published by Myriad in January 2019.He is also author of a series of comic strips for The Guardian. Sick Notes is a weekly cartoon about the trials and tribulations of working within the NHS.He is joint Series Editor for the Graphic Medicine list by Penn State University Press, US publishers of The Bad Doctor.

This item is eligible for simple returns within 30 days of delivery. Return shipping is the responsibility of the customer. See our returns policy for further details.