Max Pemberton

Before I met Dr Max Pemberton, author of "Trust me, I'm a Junior Doctor", its follow up, "Tell me where it Hurts" and columnist for the Daily Telegraph, I expected some hardened veteran Doctor, with a thousand yard stare to send chills down your spine.

Here was a man who wasn't afraid to tell the rest of the world how utterly out of his depth he felt during his first year as a Junior Doctor. Not only that, he didn't give a shit if his bosses or the government didn't agree with his opinions or the way he portrayed the NHS.

When I was a kid I always thought that being grown up would somehow feel different. There would be a certain feeling of authority that would suddenly develop in me around my early twenties leaving me feeling in control of every situation. To date, this has not happened, so I still find myself considering other people to be "grown ups". Like firemen, or Lawyers.

But especially Doctors.

When I turn up at his flat in The Barbican it turns out Max is a bit of a laugh, candidly honest about everything and more than willing to talk about subjects that would usually result in most interviews coming to an abrupt halt.

Interview by Ed Williams. Photos by Matt Piper.

I'll get the obvious question out of the way first - what made you want to become a doctor?

I suppose I always wanted to be a doctor, well, when I was being sensible. Before that I wanted to be a marine biologist. Then someone explained to me that it mostly involved swimming and counting molluscs and I thought, "that sounds absolutely shit". On the same day my sister had been to the doctor and I remember sitting in the bathroom afterwards thinking that I'd quite like to do that. It looked quite fun. So it was basically borne out of relative ignorance. The more I thought about it as I got older the more I felt that it was what I wanted to do. I quite liked science, but never wanted to be a scientist as it's quite intrinsically dull, but with being a doctor you get to interact with people, hear their stories, that kind of thing.

Your first Book "Trust Me, I'm A Junior Doctor" showed how life as you knew it had been consumed by your job. Where did you find the time to write?

Well, I didn't write it during that first year [laughs], but I was still writing for the Daily Telegraph, which I did find incredibly difficult.

I just sat there thinking "Oh God, not again". I would start worrying about my column days before it was due in, certainly for the first couple of months because I just had no time to do it. I would get home and it would be 11 o'clock, I'd have dinner at 12 and then I'd have to sit down and write and THEN I'd have to be at work at 6.30 the next day. It's like, when do you do that? I'd only have about two hours sleep on those days so it was really stressful.

Then I got used to it and the way that I thought about things shifted, so I started to really enjoy it. I mean, I always enjoyed it but it stopped being such a massive concern and chore as I started to get better at it. The first couple [of columns], when I read them now I think they're laughable, but they took me a long, long time to write. I sat there for a couple of hours trying to work out how to phrase things, but now . . . it just sort of comes out.

What attracted you to The Barbican as a place to live?

I just love the place. I love the architecture, the Brutalism - even though lots of people tend to hate it. I love its architectural honesty and the very subtle things you notice as you walk round. In the Barbican Centre the walls curve down into the floor. It's little tiny things like that I love. The gardens, having the Theatre so close - which I'm really passionate about. There are 3 cinemas and an art gallery - It just seems to me to be the absolute perfect place to live. So when I was thinking about where I wanted to buy my flat The Barbican just seemed so obvious. Once they're here, people never leave.

With so many distractions on your doorstep you must have to literally chain yourself to your desk. How do you stay focused?

I'm not really good at that [laughs]. You could ask any of my editors and they'll all tell you.

I don't have a TV, which I would say is the absolute number one big thing in my life that helps me stay focused. Well, slightly more focused than I would be otherwise. If I had one I would just sit around all day and watch it. But then, I always write very late at night. I can work during the day, but everything always takes me about three times as long, whereas at night it will just flow out of me. So I tend to procrastinate during the day and leave things right up until it's getting really late, then just sit there and kind of blurt it out really quickly.