Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance

It's the stuff of Grey's Anatomy, House, and ER — only these events aren't unfolding on a Hollywood soundstage.

Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance screaming past you during your rush-hour commute? Since 2003, Tom Reynolds (writing under an alias so as not to get sacked from his job), has kept a blog where he chronicles the day-in, day-out realities of his life on the job as an EMT with the London Ambulance Service.

By turns both poignant and profound, Reynolds's writing captures the very essence of life and death. From the mundane to the surreal, from the heartwarming to the cynical, from the calm to the frenetic, more than 300 entries from his popular blog at randomreality.blogware.com are included in the book.

Dear Mr. Alcoholic:
Would you mind awfully not swearing at me, taking a swing at me, or exposing yourself to me? I have quite enough abuse from the nondrunks out there....Still, at least your fists are easy to dodge, and if I stop holding you up, you fall over.

The author's hugely popular blog, Random Acts of Reality, has been named Medgadget Best Medical Blog and Best Literary Medical Blog.

"An alluring mix of humor, bravery, cynicism, and compassion." London Daily Telegraph

An alluring mix of humor, bravery, cynicism, and compassion." --London Daily Telegraph

It's the stuff of Grey's Anatomy, House, and ER--only these events aren't unfolding on a Hollywood soundstage.

Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance screaming past you during your rush-hour commute? Since 2003, Tom Reynolds (writing under an alias so as not to get sacked from his job), has kept a blog where he chronicles the day-in, day-out realities of his life on the job as an EMT with the London Ambulance Service.

By turns both poignant and profound, Reynolds's writing captures the very essence of life and death. From the mundane to the surreal, from the heartwarming to the cynical, from the calm to the frenetic, more than 300 entries from his popular blog at randomreality.blogware.com are included in the book.

Dear Mr. Alcoholic:

Would you mind awfully not swearing at me, taking a swing at me, or exposing yourself to me? I have quite enough abuse from the nondrunks out there. . . . Still, at least your fists are easy to dodge, and if I stop holding you up, you fall over.

The author's hugely popular blog, Random Acts of Reality, has been named Medgadget Best Medical Blog and Best Literary Medical Blog.

On July 22, 2003, an emergency medical technician living in London began writing a blog under the pseudonym Tom Reynolds. One mention by a writer for the Guardian and that blog has changed his life — with more people coming to know him as Tom Reynolds than as Brian Kellett.