Wishart's first book, Leaving Reality Behind, co-authored with historian Regula Bochsler was published in 2002, by Fourth Estate in the UK and HarperCollins in the United States.
[citation needed] Leaving Reality Behind tells the history of what's become known as the Toywars – a battle between an online retailer and a group of European artists, which highlighted for the first time, the contradictions at the heart of the internet and ecommerce.
[citation needed] Simon Singh, in The Sunday Telegraph, said "Wishart succeeds brilliantly in constructing a narrative that is a tribute both to his father and the scientists who have partly unpacked the mystery of cancer.
"[3] In a review for The Sunday Times, John Cornwell said that an "imaginative fusion of anecdotal detail, medical science and poignant, elegiac narrative marks every chapter of this unusual book".
[5] Wishart joined the BBC's Training Scheme in 1993, and went on to work as an assistant on Watchdog, Newsnight, Horizon, Tomorrow's World, Panorama, and Modern Times.
[10][11] In 2009, Wishart wrote, directed, and featured in The Price of Life for BBC2, about the rationing of high cost cancer drugs by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which was nominated for Best Science Documentary in the Grierson Awards of 2009.