A former anaesthetist is celebrating the release of his memoirs.

Bollington resident Tony McCluskey has released three books telling the 'no-holds-barred' tale of his life working at local hospitals.

Six years in the making, Tony hopes the trilogy will offer a 'hilarious and often heartbreaking' insight into life on the NHS frontline.

The 63-year-old said: "Although my story is my own and only I could tell it, there is so much there that anyone who has worked on the NHS frontline will recognise and perhaps these books will help them realise that they're not alone and that it's not just them.

"I think anyone interested in a career in medicine, nursing, or any of the other clinical sciences, such as radiography or physiotherapy, would find my books thought-provoking and might shape their decision-making.

"I also think that people in general have an endless fascination with hospitals, illness, doctors and nurses, in the same way that they have a love affair with true crime stories, whodunnit novels, and detective TV series. It's all here for them in my books."

A Mancunian by birth, Tony was born at St Mary's Hospital and grew up in Droylsden.

In 1988 he and his wife Pauline bought their first home together in Bollington and have lived in the town ever since.

After studying at the University of Manchester Medical School for six years, Tony spent three years working on general wards, mainly at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.

During this time, he decided he wanted to become an anaesthetist and so, he spent the next seven years learning how to put patients to sleep – and more importantly, wake them safely up again.

Tony said: "As an anaesthetist in training, I often worked on the intensive care units, managing critically ill, ventilator-dependent patients.

"The adrenaline rush of fending off the Grim Reaper from my charges soon had me hooked, so it was natural that when I was ready to apply for a consultant job, I sought one with a specialty interest in critical care."

Lucky for Tony, such a post arose at Stepping Hill Hospital, where he would spend much of the remainder of his working life.

He began writing his memoirs just one month into retirement, describing it as a 'labour of love'.

Tony said: "I sat in front of a blank PC screen and the words flowed out faster than I could type them.

"Those first drafts, the creative bit, was easy. I had more material than I knew what to do with!

"Editing my raw material time after time after time was hard work, though. I had to sacrifice pages and pages of what I had originally thought was literary gold on the altar of tight narrative flow.

"It was challenging, but however hard I have found the 'work' of being an author, it's a breeze compared with active duty on the NHS frontline.

"Real work is being up for 24 hours or longer straight, without sleep or even a break, literally saving lives.

"In my view, every doctor and nurse working in the NHS is a hero."

Asked what inspired him to start writing to begin with, Tony said: "The last few years of my career were characterised by increasing frustration at the problems besetting the NHS frontline and the unwelcome interference of politicians in how doctors should work and what they deserved to be paid.

"The stress of the relentlessly long hours, often working 24 hours straight without a break, didn't help my mood, either.

"So it was that whenever a situation arose that I took exception to, I would lose my rag and proclaim to all and sundry, 'And that's going in the book.' People would invariably respond with, 'Good. If you write it, I'll buy it.' So I did."

He continued: "However, the biggest reason I wrote these three books was to prove to myself that it really did happen and that I was actually there at the time.

"I never talked much about the details of my life at work with my wife, and certainly not with my two daughters, my wider family, or my friends. I had no wish to relive the all too many sad and desperate stories.

"All I ever wanted to do when I left the hospital for home was to forget all about it and destress. Which meant that nobody except for me and the people I was fortunate enough to work with ever knew what really happened.

"My story finally sets the record straight. It's a full, unabridged, raw, no-holds-barred collection of tales that give the lowdown on my 40-year medical career.

"I hope my adventures at medical school, on the wards, in the operating theatre and in the ICU will transport readers on an emotional rollercoaster as the sorrow and joy, tragedy and triumph, mundanity and absurdity, and the horror and hilarity of life as a junior hospital doctor are laid bare.

"My books are an eye-opening, hilarious, yet often heartbreaking, insight into life on the NHS frontline. I like to think my story isn't just an entertainment – it's an education."

To find out more or to purchase Tony's books, visit his website here.