After twenty years caring for patients, GP and dad, Michael Crisp explains why pursuing his first novel wasn’t about changing careers but more about showing his children that it’s never too late to chase your ambitions.
Photo from Pexels
As dads, we often find ourselves a little way down the list in the family pecking order!
The school run before work. The WhatsApp messages from home during a busy day. Trying to be present for bedtime after a mentally exhausting shift, and somewhere between family commitments and earning a living, we convince ourselves that our own ambitions can wait until life becomes a little less busy….but in reality, it never does.
For NHS GP and dad, Michael Crisp, that balancing act has been part of everyday life for more than two decades and it took this time before he finally gave himself permission to pursue a dream he’d quietly carried for years: writing a novel.
Today, his debut medical thriller What Can’t Be Unseen is set to hit bookshelves, but the real story isn’t simply about becoming an author, it’s more about what happens when a working dad decides that his own aspirations matter too.
Medicine has been Michael’s world for more than twenty years and as a GP, he’s spent his career helping people through illness, uncertainty and some of the most difficult days of their lives. It’s rewarding work but also incredibly demanding.
Like many dads, work often came first because it had to with family life filling the remaining hours but the idea of writing a novel quietly lingered in the background.
“I’d always been an avid reader,” Michael says. “And the idea of writing a novel began with a very simple question: could I actually do it?”
He thought he could, then thought he couldn’t, then he could and then he couldn’t but eventually a year after first having the idea he sat down and put pen to paper. For many parents, that hesitation feels familiar as we often assume dreams belong to another stage of life, one where there is somehow more time.
The reality was very different as there weren’t empty evenings or free weekends. Instead, he had to write around the demands of general practice and family life, making progress when he could.
One unexpected source of inspiration came while running through the countryside
“Ironically, it was when I switched off from daily life that inspiration arrived,” he explains. “More than once, I rushed back from a run and immediately jotted down plot ideas.”
It’s a reminder that creativity doesn’t always need uninterrupted hours, sometimes it simply needs permission. Big achievements rarely happen because life suddenly becomes less busy, they happen because we decide our goals still matter.
Many debut authors spend years researching the worlds they write about but for Michael he already had an advantage as it was all he knew.
His novel introduces readers to Dr James Harland, an NHS doctor investigating the mysterious death of a young woman that uncovers a dangerous conspiracy involving unethical pharmaceutical research, organised crime and human trafficking.
Yes, the plot is fictional, but the emotional reality isn’t. Thanks to years working within the NHS Michael was only too familiar with the emotional highs and lows of medicine every single day; the responsibility, the exhaustion, the ethical dilemmas and the impossible decisions.
“There are moments of genuine clinical happenings throughout the novel with many situations highlighting what many doctors face daily during their careers. In general practice you often find yourself working with incomplete information, leaving you constantly piecing small clues together to form a bigger picture. Harland approaches his investigation in much the same way.”
It is Michael’s authenticity that gives What Can’t Be Unseen something many thrillers lack: it feels believable because it’s written by someone who has genuinely lived in that world.
While readers can expect What Can’t Be Unseen to deliver plenty of twists, turns and suspense, it also explores questions that resonate beyond its pages.
What happens when trust breaks down?
How do good people respond when systems fail?
How far would someone go in the pursuit of scientific progress?
Drawing on decades of life inside the NHS, Michael explores these ethical questions while creating characters who feel recognisably human rather than larger-than-life heroes.
The most encouraging part of Michael’s story is that publishing his first novel wasn’t the finish line; instead, it was just the beginning; a second James Harland thriller is already underway, with familiar characters returning for another gripping storyline…coming early 2027.
As parents, we spend years encouraging our children to be brave, to try new things, work hard and follow your dreams. But children learn just as much from watching us as they do from listening to us.
By publishing his first novel after spending twenty years in medicine, Michael is showing that ambitions don’t come with an expiry date. Whether it’s writing a book, starting a business, retraining or taking on a completely new challenge, it’s never too late to begin.
That lesson may be one of the greatest gifts working parents can give their children
For dads reading this while balancing careers, family life and dreams of their own, there’s an important message hidden within Michael’s journey. You don’t have to choose between being a committed parent and pursuing something that matters to you; sometimes the two are connected. Because when our children see us continuing to learn, create and challenge ourselves, we’re teaching them that it’s never too late to say yes to your own dream.
What Can’t Be Unseen is available on Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/ppmpsdee) RRP £12.99