Reddit reviews Medical Microbiology (Fundamentals of Biomedical Science)

Yes, it is hard to get experience here in the UK as a student. It does bode well to ask for tours around labs if you can though and I think one of my friends did volunteer at our University over the summer between her second/third year.
Please do learn your aseptic technique and also remember the importance of lab health and safety too :D A very good book for microbiology laboratory techniques and the methods used to analyse various specimens is; Medical Microbiology (Fundamentals of Biomedical Science) editied by Michael Ford. Here is the link on the UK Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-Microbiology-Fundamentals-Biomedical-Science/dp/019954963X .
I have just finished an undergraduate masters in Biomedical Science and did my training in microbiology (1 year in industry) and just got a job in a microbiology lab and this book helped me understand the tests the labs used, very useful.
Two things for when writing assignments/essays:

1. Remember to put all organism names in italics
   
2. Remember the Gram of Gram stain always should have a capital G
   Sorry if that comes across as obvious or anything, its just two things my lecturer always hated, moaned and dropped us marks for :D