With the end in mind (HarperCollins Publishers)

In this unprecedented book, palliative medicine pioneer Dr Kathryn Mannix explores the biggest taboo in our society and the only certainty we all share: death 'Impossible to read with dry eyes or an unaltered mindset' Sunday Times A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & BOOK OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE Told through a series of beautifully crafted stories taken from nearly four decades of clinical practice, her book answers the most intimate questions about the process of dying with touching honesty and humanity. She makes a compelling case for the therapeutic power of approaching death not with trepidation but with openness, clarity and understanding. With the End in Mind is a book for us all: the grieving and bereaved, ill and healthy. Open these pages and you will find stories about people who are like you, and like people you know and love. You will meet Holly, who danced her last day away; Eric, the retired head teacher who, even with Motor Neurone Disease, gets things done; loving, tender-hearted Nelly and Joe, each living a lonely lie to save their beloved from distress; and Sylvie, 19, dying of leukaemia, sewing a cushion for her mum to hug by the fire after she has died. These are just four of the book's thirty-odd stories of normal humans, dying normal human deaths. They show how the dying embrace living not because they are unusual or brave, but because that's what humans do. Aby turns touching, tragic, at times funny and always wise, they offer us illumination, models for action, and hope. Read this book and you'll be better prepared for life as well as death. "I got to the end of Kathryn Mannix's book with just one thought - I wish I'd been a palliative consultant... An essential read for all of us who are going to die. And that is all of us... A reminder that talking about death is an Act of Love" Greg Wise 'Extraordinary and profoundly moving. Is it not often that a book commends itself because you sense quite simply that the writer is a good person, this is one such. Any reader will come away with the wish that they will be cared for at the end by someone with Mannix's imaginative sympathy and matter-of-fact generosity of perception' Rowan Williams, New Statesman 'The stories read like fiction, the life in each shines through and the characters practically leap off the page. It is incredibly moving, of course, but what it isn't is miserable. Yes this is a book about death, but it is also