I really would hope that this book would be widely read and not simply by those directly interested from a medical perspective - as the author tells us we will all die one day. Dying as a performance, dying as an art and a practice, dying as something solemnly profound and sorrowful and at the same time as normal, natural; dying as physical and as spiritual; dying as the end of a whole world because, as Oliver Sacks wrote, when dying himself: “There is no one like anyone else, ever. 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.

Due to the issues involved in one story the book also looks briefly at the legalities and ethics involved in dealing with patients who are approaching the end of life.I have referred to that one a number of times when talking to people who were in fear of their death, and I can see how this one would be even more comforting. While I am broadly pro-euthanasia, I wouldn't have minded if Mannix had directly challenged my views by offering up new evidence to support her obvious concerns about euthanasia options such as those offered in the Netherlands. At Bridge Books, we love getting to know our community and are always willing to chat and help point you towards resources you might find useful. This was not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because it was a two-week loan and I was conscious of needing to move on to other longlist books. It’s so hard to learn lessons from others, we often think we’re different though, it won’t happen to me - in this case that’s faulty thinking.

Having qualified as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist in 1993, she started the UK’s (possibly the world’s) first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients, and devised ‘CBT First Aid’ training to enable palliative care colleagues to add new skills to their repertoire for helping patients.

It may also be because I have read quite a number of books with similar themes and scope – including Caitlin Doughty’s two books on death, Caring for the Dying by Henry Fersko-Weiss, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, and Waiting for the Last Bus by Richard Holloway.

Perhaps most of all it is a book which all doctors should read as an example of the healing that can be accomplished simply by a gentle, patient and sensitive conversation. The narratives feel generic; the people often feel generic, as though all their idiosyncrasies have been sanded down or air-brushed out. With a tsunami of death coming soon as the baby-boomers die, there really wont be enough staff trained in this particular way. I can’t say enough about what a comfort this book was to me - it used knowledge and stories to take the fear away of what may come, and how to face those times with calm and reassurance, grace and finality.This book may well not be for everyone however it tackles very difficult subjects with great gentleness. On the other hand, if your belief system can't reconcile the fact that we show mercy and euthanize a dog as soon as we notice first signs of pointless suffering, but use are "knowledge and expertise" to prolong that suffering as long as possible in our fellow humans, after reading all these testimonials of human beings falling apart alive, you're only going to be more mad and in wonder why we philosophize about euthanasia so much. It’s a complicated truth: we all fear dying, and we all fear it in different ways, according to our individual circumstances and life experiences. I was particularly touched by the stories of Sally, a young woman dying from melanoma who refused to accept that her condition was terminal, and Holly, a mum of two teenagers dying from cancer of the cervix, who suffered from a last bout of restless energy before passing away. My life in palliative care has shown me that the process of dying is made less frightening and more peaceful, the better prepared we are.