Grief & Bereavement

This unusual and important book is a series of reflections on death in all its forms: the science of it, the medicine, the tragedy and the comedy. Dr David Jarrett draws on family stories and case histories from his thirty years of treating the old, demented and frail to try to find his own understanding of the end.

And he writes about all the conversations that we, our parents, our children, the medical community, our government and society as a whole should be having. Profound, provocative, strangely funny and astonishingly compelling, it is an impassioned plea that we start talking frankly and openly about death. And it is a call to arms for us to make radical changes to our perspective on 'the seventh age of man'.

Grief is a path we can all expect to walk one day, when we lose someone we love, and life suddenly looks different. But how long does grieving take? When can we expect to feel 'normal' again? And should we? In The Aftergrief, acclaimed grief coach and New York Times bestselling author Hope Edelman helps us to understand that loss isn't something to get over, get past, or move beyond, and trying to achieve these will only lead us nowhere.

Instead, she draws on her own experiences of early bereavement, as well as interviews with dozens of men and women who have lost someone dear, toanswer how, individually, we can learn to live with loss and grief long-term, and accept it as something that becomes a part of us, and shapes our thoughts and our choices, our hopes and our fears. Offering advice for processing loss, regaining balance in its wake and even finding new purpose, while also being prepared that our sorrow can ebb and flow, recede and return, and this doesn't mean that we're 'doing it wrong', The Aftergrief will help us to see that while grieving may be a lifelong process, it needn't be a lifelong struggle.

It was the last of the ebbing days, the brink of the new season. It was the murky hours, the clove between sunset and sunrise. It was a tall tree with deep roots and it had been bleeding for a long while. As summer falls into autumn, Hollie Starling is hit by the heart-stopping news that her father has died by suicide.

Thrust into a state of 'grief on hard mode', Hollie feels underserved by current attitudes toward grief and so seeks another way through the dark. Following her first year without her father, Hollie embraces her lifelong interest in folklore and turns to the healing power of nature, the changing seasons and the rituals of ancient communities. The Bleeding Tree is an unflinching year-zero guidebook to grief that shows us that by looking back to past traditions of bereavement we can all find our own way forward.

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate.

Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 however when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love.

And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine.

Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis.

Gina Claye's poems explore the emotions experienced by those who grieve. Bereavement can leave people feeling isolated. It takes courage to grieve and is an intensely person process. Sharing feelings through poetry brings some comfort knowing they are not alone with their painful and overwhelming emotions.

When Freddy was 21 years old, his dad, a larger-than-life, successful TV producer, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain cancer.

In vivid snapshots, Freddy recalls the ups and downs of an impossible time - from the entertaining antics of a wine-gum tossing competition in a hospital ward, to the comi-tragedy of trying to decipher his father's muddled riddles as his speech disintegrates, to painful moments of regret and self-loathing as he squanders precious time.

Don't Put Yourself on Toast is a bittersweet coming-of-age memoir which shows how the power of humour and laughter can provide, even in our darkest moments, sustenance, comfort and hope.

Author copes with life after death of his wife; Sequel to: 'Jeannie' (2759);

After the death of her partner of thirty-two years, Lisa Appignanesi was thrust into a state striated by rage and superstition in which sanity felt elusive. The dead of prior generations loomed large and haunting. Then, too, the cultural and political moment seemed to collude with her condition: everywhere people were dislocated and angry. In this brave examination of an ordinary death and its aftermath, the author uses all her evocative and analytic powers to scrutinize her own and our society’s experience of grieving, the effects of loss and the potent, mythical space it occupies in our lives.

David Kessler - the world's foremost expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving - journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning. David has spent decades teaching about end of life, trauma and grief. And yet his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son. How does the grief expert handle such a devastating loss? 

In Finding Meaning, Kessler shares his hard-earned wisdom and offers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain, how to move forward in a way that honours our loved ones and ultimately transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience. An inspiring, deeply intelligent must-read for anyone struggling to figure out how to live after loss.

In July 2019, Ben Goldsmith lost his fifteen-year-old daughter, Iris, in an accident on their family farm in Somerset. Iris's death left her family reeling. Grasping for answers, Ben threw himself into searching for some ongoing trace of his beloved child, exploring ideas that until then had seemed too abstract to mean much to him. Missing his daughter terribly and struggling to imagine how he would face the rest of his life in the shadow of this loss, Ben found solace in nature, the object of a lifelong fascination. As Ben set about rewilding his farm, nature became a vital source of meaning and hope.

This book is the story of a year of soul-searching that followed a terrible loss. In an instant, Ben's world had turned dark. Yet, unbelievably to him, the seasons kept on turning, and as he immersed himself in the dramatic restoration of nature in the place where it happened, he found healing. In God is an Octopus, Ben tells a powerful, immersive and inspiring story of finding comfort and strength in nature after suffering loss and despair.

The perennial classic: this intimate journal chronicling the Narnia author's experience of grief after his wife's death has consoled readers for half a century; this edition features responses from authors like Hilary Mantel, Francis Spufford, Rowan Williams, Jenna Bailey ... 'An intimate, anguished account of a man grappling with the mysteries of faith and love ... Elegant and raw ... A powerful record of thought and emotion experienced in real time.' Guardian 'Raw and modern ... This unsentimental, even bracing, account of one man's dialogue with despair becomes both compelling and consoling ... A contemporary classic.' Observer 'A source of great consolation ... Lewis deploys his genius for vivid imagery ... It is a relief for the reader to find that he or she is not alone in the intense loneliness or feelings of anguish that bereavement brings.' Henry Marsh, The Times 'Testimony from a sensitive and eloquent witness [on] 'The Human Condition'. It offers an interrogation of experience and a glimmer of hardwon hope. It allows one bewildered mind to reach out to another. Death is no barrier to that.' Hilary Mantel 'Here, sorrow and despair, the tiredness and numbness and petulance and nightmarishness of grief, all have their full, uncontrolled, experienced force ... [Such] radical openness ... Brilliant.' Francis Spufford *** No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. Narnia author C.S. Lewis had been married to his wife for four blissful years. When she died of cancer, he found himself alone, inconsolable in his grief. In this intimate journal, he chronicles the aftermath of the bereavement and mourning with blazing honesty. He grapples with a crisis of religious faith, navigating hope, rage, despair, and love - but eventually regains his bearings, finding his way back to life. A luminous modern classic, A Grief Observed has offered solace to countless readers for decades. This companion edition combines the original text with personal responses from Hilary Mantel, Rowan Williams, Francis Spufford, Maureen Freely, Kate Saunders, Jessica Martin and Jenna Bailey. *** What readers are saying: 'A truly great book - inspirational and untold help.' 'Every human being, living or dead, understands what Lewis means ... One of the most valuable books ever written.' 'Lewis, as always, sits down next to you and validates your grief like a true friend. He lets you rage, and cry, and even be furious with God, just as he did.' 'If you are grieving an enormous loss, you may find comfort here ... A great mind and wonderful writer who understands your grief well enough to put words to it.' 'His journal was also my journal as I worked through my own grief. Reading this book was actually comforting in that I knew that someone else understood my situation and offered insight and hope ... I highly recommend this book for anyone who has gone through the death of a loved one or who wants to comfort." 'This little book has had me in floods of tears [and] shows a real understanding of grief ... To read the words of this great man who shared and understood my pain and is a life affirming and faith affirming experience.'

When Barney Bardsley’s husband died of cancer, she steeled herself to cope by taking one day at a time. During this dark time she took to tending her small, scruffy allotment and she slowly began to find comfort in nature. As the seasons unfold, she charts how her own life is slowly restored under the garden’s healing influence.

In 2016 Hunter Davies' wife, the writer Margaret Foster, died and in the days that followed, Hunter was forced to navigate the implications of being widowed. Revealing his emotional journey over the course of one year, he talks about being alone again after 55 years of marriage, coping with bereavement and being elderly. Part memoir, part self-help, this is a fitting, heartfelt tribute to the love of his life and an amusing and informative book about growing old.

In the immediate aftermath of a loss, sometimes it is all we can do to keep breathing. With his signature clarity and compassion, Thich Nhat Hanh will guide you through the storm of emotions surrounding the death of a loved one.

How To Live When A Loved One Dies offers powerful practices such as mindful breathing that will help you reconcile with death and loss, feel connected to your loved one long after they have gone and transform your grief into healing and joy.

In the summer of 1990, Cathy's brother Matty was knocked down by a car, two weeks before receiving his GCSE results. Sitting by his unconscious body in hospital, holding his hand and watching his heartbeat on the monitors, Cathy and her parents willed him to survive. They did not know then that there are many fates worse than death.

One evening, Carolina says good night to her partner, Aksel. Things have been tough for both of them recently, especially with an eight-month-old son to raise. So when Aksel dies unexpectedly in the night, Carolina's world is turned upside down.

Based on the author's own experiences, Let's Hope for the Best details the small moments of life before and after tragedy. It's a story about motherhood, family and the difficulties of loving someone who is distant, and then who is gone.

Brave and unsparing, packed with emotion and humanity, it is about how the life we envisage for ourselves can be altered in an instant. What if one moment changed everything you've ever known?

One woman's journey through love, loss and healing. When her husband is diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and she is plunged into widowhood at the tender age of 37, Kathryn's world is shattered. Life Matters is a searing account of the days that follow. Throughout, her unwavering love of horses weaves a golden thread of faith, providing strength through the darkest of times and warmth in a time of overwhelming grief. A tribute to the power of love and a testament to the strength and fortitude of the human spirit. This memoir of grief and loss is written from the heart and soul.

Loving You From Here explores the traumatic impact of losing a baby through stillbirth and neonatal death. It features the moving stories of multiple families; some affected recently, some decades ago, but still living with the loss. This book is a practical guide for grieving parents in the grips of tragedy, and those around them who want to be able to offer support. From managing those initial feelings of shock, grief, guilt and anger, this book will also show families how it is possible to grow around that grief and eventually form an enduring bond with their baby.

What the world saw, and what it didn't

"Nothing could ever have prepared me for this. Some days it breaks me, and I can't even bear to do it. I always thought I was tough, but it brings me to my knees every single time."

Safiyya's beautiful baby daughter, Azaylia, was eight weeks old when she was diagnosed with leukaemia. By the age of 8 months, Safiyya and her partner, Ashley, had to say their final goodbye.

This is Safiyya's account of motherhood, hope and loss. It is about the unbreakable and incomparable bond between mother and daughter ... about what happens to a family when they face a life without the person that completed them, putting readers in the shoes no parent wants to be in. But, above all, it's a celebration of a remarkable little life that showed spirit that no baby should have to and a family who loved and fought to hold onto every precious moment.

On the morning of Saturday 15 April 1989, Jenni Hicks, her husband, and their two teenage daughters, Sarah and Vicki, went to watch a football match. That was to be their last day as a family. Sarah and Vicki didn't come home, and Jenni's world was changed forever.

Since that fateful day, Jenni has tirelessly campaigned for justice for her own and others' families. But this is not the story of the Hillsborough tragedy. This is a story of what came before and after that day: of a mother's love, her unimaginable bravery, a flame of hope that never died, and a quest for justice that has lasted three decades. It is a journey that has taken her from Allerton Cemetery to the Courts of Appeal, from the depths of despair to meetings with Prime Ministers and royalty.

One Day In April is the first time that Jenni has spoken about her story in full, and is a unique and poignant tribute to the lives that Sarah and Vicki lost, and the final word from the extraordinary mother they left behind.

Since living with the diagnosis of young-onset dementia in 2014, Wendy Mitchell has written two Sunday Times-bestselling books, been skydiving and supported multiple dementia advocacy groups in the UK. She is known for talking about living with dementia, but now - while she is still able to - she explores dying with it.

In One Last Thing, Wendy embarks on a journey to explore all angles of death: how we can prepare for it, how we talk about it with our loved ones and how we can be empowered to make our own choices. With conversations on the topic of assisted dying, from those who are fighting to make it legal to those vehemently opposed to its practice, Wendy reminds us that to get on with the business of living, we need to talk about death.

A few weeks before Christmas, Clover's sister died of breast cancer, aged forty-six. Just days before, she had been given years to live. Her sudden death split Clover's life apart. The Red of My Blood charts Clover's fearless passage through the fi rst year after her sister's death. It is a book about what life feels like when death interrupts it, and about bearing the unbearable and describing an experience that seems beyond words. Lyrical, hopeful, it is also about the magical way in which death and life exist so vividly beside one another, and the wonder of being human.

Julie Nicholson, a Church of England minister, lost her daughter, Jenny, in the London underground bombings. This poignant memoir relates the events of that terrible day and its aftermath and Julie's struggle to comprehend the tragedy, which shook her faith and caused her to resign her position as parish priest.

James Runcie's wife Marilyn Imrie died in August 2020. Their thirty-five year marriage had been miraculously happy - until, in the last two years of Marilyn's life, she descended into the pain and humiliation of motor neurone disease.

In the wake of her death, Runcie stumbled in the dark. How do you make sense of the decline and death of the most alive person you have ever met? And how do you go about building a life worth living in their absence?

In Tell Me Good Things, Runcie tells the story of Marilyn's illness and death while painting a vivid portrait of her life and their marriage. And during that first year of loss, he awakens to the strange paradox of grief: that the way to survive Marilyn's death is to understand how very good she was at living.

One morning in June, Abi had her to-do list - drop the kids to school, get coffee and go to work. Jacob had a bad headache so she added 'pick up steroids'. She returned home and found the man she loved and fought and laughed with for twenty years lying on the bathroom floor. 

But this is not a pity memoir. It's about meeting your person. And crazed late night Google trawls. It's about the things you wished you'd said to the person that matters then wildly over-sharing with the barista who doesn't know you at all. It's about sushi and the wrong shoes and the moments you want to shout 'cut'. It's about the silence when you are lost in space and the importance of family and parties and noise.

It's the difference between surviving and living. It's a reminder that, even in the worst times, there is light ahead. It's a love story. 

Where do we go when we die? Is death something we can do or is it just something that happens to us? Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has spent a lifetime at the bedsides of the dying, guiding countless men and women towards peaceful deaths. Here he presents a positive, meditative and profound exploration of the lessons we can learn from death by reflecting on our failings and forgiving ourselves and others.

End-of-life doula Anna Lyons and funeral director Louise Winter have joined forces to share a collection of the heartbreaking, surprising and uplifting stories of the ordinary and extraordinary lives they encounter every single day.

From working with the living, the dying, the dead and the grieving, Anna and Louise reveal the lessons they've learned about life, death, love and loss. Together they've created a profound but practical guide to rethinking the one thing that's guaranteed to happen to us all. We are all going to die, and that's ok. Let's talk about it.

This is a book about life and living, as much as it's a book about death and dying. It's a reflection on the beauties, blessings and tragedies of life, the exquisite agony and ecstasy of being alive, and the fragility of everything we hold dear.

Mortality is often on Joan Bakewell's mind. She's in her eighties, many of her friends have died and older relatives went long ago - and yet death is a topic we rarely discuss. It's become clear: we need to talk about death. In this groundbreaking series, Baroness Bakewell and expert guests discuss death and dying, exploring the choices open to us and confronting the questions we fear the most.

This is no abstract pursuit, however, as the team tackle the most pressing practical issues at the end of our lives, like how to have the most painless death possible, how to leave your body to science or be buried at sea, who pays for your funeral if you die penniless, and what happens to our online presence after we're gone?

When Cariad was just fifteen, her dad died. She became the person-whose-dad-had-died; a mess of emotions and questions; a grief-mess. Years later, she began trying to unravel this tightly wound grief. What had happened? What effect had it all had on who she was? She started Griefcast, the podcast that talks openly, honestly and at times cheerfully about life's most difficult moment: its end. Inspired by her own grief mistakes and lessons,...