Since its foundation in 1948, the NHS has come to define our national identity, making history (and the headlines) again and again – from cutting edge discoveries like the first ‘test tube baby’, to its heroic response to the Coronavirus crisis. But the NHS has also become a battleground for some of the fiercest political contests of our time, perceived either as a national treasure, or as a lumbering piece of state machinery in need of renovation. In this book, journalist Isabel Hardman cuts through the sentimentality and sloganeering on all sides of the political spectrum. Packed with gripping stories from the people at the beating heart of this venerated institution – its nurses, its doctors, its patients and the politicians who decide its fate – this is the essential book for understanding our NHS, and who we are as a nation.