When Mike Marqusee was diagnosed with multiple myeloma on 2007 he was adamant, largely for reasons of privacy, that he wasn’t going to write about his experience. But he changed his mind and a good thing he did so because he manages to pack into this slim volume of articles more than weightier tomes do in hundreds of pages.

Marqusee began writing not only celebrate the NHS and the treatment he has received but to defend it and, in particular St Bart’s hospital in London, from the current Tory-led attacks. He contrasts his time there with that of his compatriots in the US where treatment is expensive and health insurance even for those who can afford it — and 46 million can’t — rarely delivers what it promises.

See the full review at the Morning Star.