Junior doctor turned comedian Adam Kay has signed a deal with Picador, who will publish the autobiographical Your Life In My Hands.

Kay was a junior doctor from 2004 until 2010 before a devastating experience on a ward caused him to reconsider his future. He kept a diary throughout his training and Your Life In My Hands intersperses tales from the front line of the NHS with reflections on the current crisis. The result is a first-hand account of life as a junior doctor in all its joy, pain, sacrifice and maddening bureaucracy, and a love letter to those who might at any moment be holding our lives in their hands.

Picador's Editorial Director Francesca Main said: "I saw Adam’s Edinburgh show last summer and, along with the rest of the audience, spent the first 50 minutes in stitches and the final 10 in tears. I’m thrilled to be publishing the often hilarious, at times horrifying, and occasionally heartbreaking Your Life In My Hands, which shines a light on the everyday heroism of junior doctors and shares a few secrets that will make your toes curl. Adam has a brilliant voice and a unique story to tell – this is the book David Sedaris might have written, if only he had spent six years in scrubs."

Adam Kay said: "I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Picador on my first book. Francesca and the whole team are fantastic – it’s an absolute honour to be invited to bring the tone of their brand down so dramatically. Even if only one person reads it, that’s one more person who knows the truth about life as a junior doctor and one more voice who can stand up for the future of the NHS. Although if only one person reads the book, Picador will have made a catastrophic mistake in commissioning it."

This is not, however, Kay's first book, as he told BTJ: "In 2010 I co-authored an undergraduate textbook called Rapid Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It currently ranks 529,309 in the Amazon chart and one customer review complained about the quality of paper they'd used in the book. So the bar isn't set TOO high for this book to do better..."

Your Life In My Hands will be published on 7 September 2017. Adam Kay will be performing the show that impressed Picador, Fingering A Minor On The Piano, from April 3 - 15. Tickets here.