And Finally
A Neurosurgeon's Reflections on Life
Published on 21. September 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-78470-936-5 (ISBN)
Description
**BBC DOCUMENTARY CONFESSIONS OF A BRAIN SURGEON IS OUT NOW**
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
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
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 126 mm
Width: 195 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
172 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78470-936-5 (9781784709365)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Henry Marsh
And Finally
Matters of Life and Death, the Sunday Times bestseller from the author of DO NO HARM
E-Book
09/2022
Vintage Digital
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Henry Marsh is a retired neurosurgeon and the bestselling author of Do No Harm and Admissions. Both books were Sunday Times No. 1 bestsellers, and have been translated into over thirty languages. Do No Harm was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Award and the PEN Ackerley Prize, and was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, Duff Cooper Prize, Wellcome Book Prize and Guardian First Book Award. Marsh was made CBE is 2010. Since retiring from full-time work in the NHS in 2015, he continued to operate and lecture abroad. He is married to the anthropologist Kate Fox, and lives in London and Oxford.