Henry Marsh

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.

[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.

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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.

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.

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.

[A] fascinating unusually revelatory, ultimately conflicted and poignant account.

Marsh... writes with appealing candour about his reluctance to investigate his own symptoms... [and he] is often drily funny.

Brilliant... [a] ruminative, magisterial, self-questioning, poignant, funny and slightly bonkers memoir.

A surprisingly entertaining, informative report on what happens when an eminent neurosurgeon suddenly becomes the frightened patient... This is a valuable book from the front line of ageing. It may be called And Finally - that slightly droll tone is typical - and it may suggest a closing down, but its gift is open-handedness, a wise and Janus-like looking forward and back.

In the contemplation of death Marsh illuminates the gift of life, rendering it even more precious. And Finally has all the candour, elegance and revelation we've come to expect from Marsh. I read it straight through carried along by the force of its prose and the beauty of its ideas. It's a book to treasure and reread; I'm very grateful for it.

Gavin Francis, author of ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING and SHAPESHIFTERS

In this superb meditation on life and death, Henry Marsh tackles the matter of mortality with all his trademark wit, wisdom, grace and humility. He turns his formidable intellect and scalpel-sharp prose on himself as well as the medical profession - with marvellous results. Unflinching, profound and deeply humane, And Finally is magnificent.

Who better to ponder immortality, the threshold between states, fear, regret and what gives us meaning, than somebody who has lived a life constantly in-between. We should give thanks to Marsh, who despite facing his own mortality, allows us to come along for this poignant and vivid journey.

Molly Case, author of HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE

Marsh shares his journey with a dark yet whimsical humour, and ponders too the eternal mysteries of time.

A haunting memoir from someone who has spent a career at the fragile border between life and death, now confronting the prospect of his own crossing.

The ever-candid neurosurgeon Henry Marsh describes what it felt like, after a cancer diagnosis, to become part of "the underclass of patients", losing his status as a godlike doctor. He is also grimly humorous about what cancer treatment did to him.

As ever he writes beautifully, his interest in the human body and mind as hummingly alive as ever.

No man deserves recognition more than Henry Marsh, surgeon, humanitarian and author.

A Neurosurgeon’s Reflections on Life

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

Praise for And Finally

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.

**[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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.

**[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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.

**[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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Praise for And Finally

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.

[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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.

[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

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.

[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 a ...

[Marsh is] deeply reflective, the result is a bit like sitting in the pub with the smartest person you know.

**[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 a ...

**[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 a ...

**[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 a ...