Max Pemberton


Dr Max Pemberton is a doctor, journalist and writer. He is a weekly columnist and feature writer for the Daily Mail, writing on politics, cultural and social issues, ethics, mental health and the NHS. Prior to moving to the Mail, he was a columnist for the Daily Telegraph for 12 years. He is also a regular contributor to the Spectator as well as a columnist for Reader’s Digest.

Max has worked as a script consultant on the BBC’s Holby City and ITV dramas, and has presented the investigative strand on the Channel 4 series, How Not to Get Old. He has also reported for Radio 4’s Inside Health. He works full time in the NHS in mental health.

Max’s first book, TRUST ME, I’M A JUNIOR DOCTOR (Hodder & Stoughton) was born out of his previous Daily Telegraph column and chronicled his first year of ‘treading the wards’. The book was described by Maureen Lipman as ‘absurdly funny and beautifully observed’ and Boris Johnson as ‘painfully funny’ and was read by Max on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in 2008.

Hodder published Max’s sequel to TRUST ME, I’M A JUNIOR DOCTOR, WHERE DOES IT HURT?, in 2009 and the third book in the series, THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW, was published in 2011.

Having once described himself as someone ‘in love’ with smoking, and with years of experience treating addiction, Max wrote STOP SMOKING WITH CBT: THE MOST POWERFUL WAY TO BEAT YOUR ADDICTION, based on his own success quitting nicotine.  It was published by Vermilion in 2015.

Max’s first book aimed at children THE MARVELLOUS ADVENTURE OF BEING HUMAN: YOUR AMAZING BODY AND HOW TO LIVE IN IT was published by Wren & Rook in 2019.

Dr Max Pemberton lives and works in London.