I found this is a difficult book to grapple with but I'm glad I have read it. As a sufferer from Long Covid I found the conflated histories of chronic illness and hypochondria unsettling. Surely they are opposites. But Crampton is well aware of the distinctions and I think makes a good case for what they have in common, especially in a world where we have too much information at hand. I am lucky not to be afflicted with health anxiety and this book encouraged me to think with compassion of those who are, as well as reflecting on the context within which we experience health problems and treatment.