Benji Waterstones to publish book about being a psychiatrist

Wednesday 18th November 2020, 11:27am

Stand-up Benji Waterstones will publish You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here in 2022
Writing under his real name of Dr Benji Waterhouse, he will reveal what it's like to work as a psychiatrist
He teases: "I'm excited to introduce readers to the newest, most controversial and least understood medical speciality"

Stand-up comedian and comedy writer Benji Waterstones has landed a book deal to write about his work as a psychiatrist.

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here will be published in 2022, under his real name of Dr Benji Waterhouse.

As Benji Waterstones, he has been performing stand-up for a number of years, including taking part in new act competitions including So You Think You're Funny? and BBC New Comedy Award in 2014. He is currently working towards his debut hour-long Edinburgh Fringe show in August 2021.

Meanwhile his day job is as an NHS doctor specialising in psychiatry, which he has a decade's worth of experience in. He has written for The Guardian and Independent and has also been featured in a list of 'Inspiring Psychiatrists' by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Publishers Jonathan Cape, which won the rights to his book in a nine-way auction, say: "You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here is a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of life as a junior psychiatrist. Humane, humorous, candid and myth-busting (spoiler: there are no padded walls), Benji Waterhouse reveals the reality of life on both sides of the doctor's desk. This is Benji's story of becoming a psychiatrist, of temporarily leaving the profession disillusioned, burnt out and compassion fatigued, and of finally rediscovering his empathy to return to help fight the pandemic afflicting the nation's lungs and minds."

Notably, film and television rights have already been sold in a deal with House Productions.

The publishers add: "Poignant, eye-opening and darkly hilarious, You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here introduces a major new writing talent."

Benji comments: "Recently the country has been getting through medical memoirs faster than hand sanitiser. But the psychiatrists have been quiet, until now. I'm excited to introduce readers to the newest, most controversial and least understood medical speciality. And to finally explain the difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a psychic. The overwhelming interest received from publishers was encouraging for mental health, and to sign with Cape who publish so many of my literary heroes is very surreal."

Bea Hemming from the publishers says: "Benji's was one of the smartest, funniest, sharpest and most eye-opening proposals I've ever read. He brings a rare combination of wit and humanity to some of the most difficult aspects of what make us human. You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here will be a book that speaks with urgency and insight about the crisis of mental health and healthcare, while also introducing a brilliant storyteller."

Waterhouse becomes the latest comedian to combine his medical job with comedy. Dr Phil Hammond has fronted comedy shows for many years; Ed Patrick recently presented Radio 2 panel show Infectious Personalities; junior doctor Kwame Asante landed a Radio 4 stand-up show, The Placebo Effect; and Adam Kay became a best-selling author with his memoir This Is Going To Hurt, which is currently being adapted into a BBC Two comedy drama series.

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here will be published in the spring of 2022.

Benji Waterhouse - You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here: A Psychiatrist's Life

A woman in a wedding dress arrives at the hospital looking for Harry Styles.

A lorry driver with schizophrenia believes he's got a cure for coronavirus.

A depressed man hides his profession from his GP due to stigma.

Most of the psychiatric cases in this book are his patients. Some of them are family. One of them is him.

Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine's most mysterious and controversial speciality.

Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people's messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here explores these complicated questions from both sides of the doctor's desk.

First published: Thursday 16th May 2024

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