Category Archives: Death and Dying

Clean Air: Act. And a poem and a chat

Posted on June 14, 2020 by Angela

If you’re not as ancient as me you won’t remember the pea-soupers in London: and I’d only been breathing for just under two years at the time so it’s not exactly a memory for me either, but by 1956 The Clean … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Coronavirus, Creativity, Death and Dying, Listening, One Green Thing, Poetry, Science, Shared Reading | Leave a comment

Diana Athill, and The Astrology Book Club

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Angela

Diana Athill (1917-2019 – she died on 23 January) was an editor extraordinary, a novelist and a memoirist. She was also one very wise woman. In her book, Somewhere Towards the End, she wrote: What dies is not a life’s value, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, Death and Dying, Fiction, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Writers, Writing | Comments Off on Diana Athill, and The Astrology Book Club

Atul Gawande and Being Mortal; and a Remembrance Poppy Badge

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Angela

Atul Gawande‘s Being Mortal – which I wrote about here in the context of his 2014 Reith Lectures – is extraordinary for its courageous and honest confrontation of our failure to confront how we want to die. Or, as Atul Gawande … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and Dying, Psychology, Storytelling, Things I'd Love to Have Made | Comments Off on Atul Gawande and Being Mortal; and a Remembrance Poppy Badge

Words on Writing, and Pass on a Poem

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Angela

There are hundreds of thousands of words written about writing fiction: how to write, why we write, what to do when we can’t write and on and on so that, sometimes, I feel as if I’m adrift on a sea … Continue reading →

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Death and Dying, Fiction, Literary Prizes, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Women, Writers, Writing | Comments Off on Words on Writing, and Pass on a Poem

Je Suis Charlie …

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Angela

… one week on, what else is there to say but Je Suis Charlie and to stand with the murdered at Charlie Hebdo? Except Je Suis Ahmed.

Posted in Artists, Death and Dying, Design, Love | Comments Off on Je Suis Charlie …

Fog Island Mountains and Dr Atal Gawande, this year’s BBC Reith Lecturer

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Angela

Michelle Bailat-Jones has written a beautiful novel called Fog Island Mountains. I’ve just posted a review of it here. The novel won the 2013 Christopher Doheny Award and I hope it goes on to sell, and so to affect, many many readers. It deserves to … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and Dying, Literary Prizes, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Writers | 2 Comments

Dying Matters

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Angela

It’s Dying Matters Awareness Week and, as Iris Murdoch said (she’s quoted on the Awareness Week page): Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved. I think – although everything changes in the writing of a novel – but at … Continue reading →

Posted in Death and Dying, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Third Novel | Tagged | 2 Comments