Jonathan Cape £16.99
Some years ago, an American magazine sent me seven memoirs of serious illness to review simultaneously. (There are now academic courses on this kind of literature in university departments.)
They were secular meditations on mortality and death, and some of them had an almost querulous quality. Hadn’t the writer followed all medical advice, kept to a good diet, exercised frequently, attended check-ups etc.? And here they were, seriously ill before their time (serious illness always comes
