And Finally
A Neurosurgeon’s Reflections on Life
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:21st Sep '23
Should be back in stock very soon
![And Finally cover](https://cdn.theportobellobookshop.com/img/9781784709365.jpg)
From the No.1 bestselling author of Do No Harm, an entrancing and uplifting meditation on the gift of life.
‘A book to treasure and reread’ Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but even he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer.
In And Finally, he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient. As the days pass, his mind turns to his career, to the people and places he has known, and to creative projects still to be completed.
Yet he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and nature, by his love for his family, and – most of all – by what it is to be alive.
* A Daily Telegraph, The Times and Financial Times Book of the Year *
‘Magnificent’ Rachel Clarke
‘Vividly wry and honest’ The Times
‘I admire this book enormously’ Philip Pullman
‘Enthralling’ Guardian
Henry Marsh may have retired from medicine but let's hope he keeps producing books as good as this one, which enthral as well as teach. * Observer *
[And Finally] is unexpectedly fun, and the author is pretty much irresistibly likeable... diagnoses and remissions are described with wonderful candour... [and Marsh's] discussion of end-of-life care and assisted dying is the best essay I have read on the subject. * Guardian *
[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know. * Spectator *
Beautifully written... A thoughtful journey into his experience as a doctor-turned-patient, enlivened with a wonderful black humour and a gimlet eye for comforting nonsense... One couldn't wish for a better guide. -- Steven Poole * Daily Telegraph, 5 stars *
His dignified introspection is a joy. -- Clare Chambers, author of SMALL PLEASURES
And Finally is a close and courageous look at the prospect of death by someone who has seen it more clearly and more often than most of us, and who writes with great fluency and grace. Henry Marsh is a great neurosurgeon: he is also a very fine writer. I admire this book enormously. -- Philip Pullman, author of HIS DARK MATERIALS
A beautifully written collection of memories, thoughts and life lessons...And Finally will no doubt prompt others to contemplate their own existence and, more importantly, recognise what is truly worth living for. * Financial Times *
Vividly wry and honest... this slender, elegant book... is very much a memoir of enlightenment; the humbling, late in life, of a man of great skill and status... A wise and warm narrator, and his book will bring comfort to many - and educate doctors. -- Melanie Reid * The Times *
[A] fascinating unusually revelatory, ultimately conflicted and poignant account. * Times Literary Supplement *
Marsh... writes with appealing candour about his reluctance to investigate his own symptoms... [and he] is often drily funny. * Literary Review *
ISBN: 9781784709365
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 15mm
Weight: 170g
240 pages