The author is clearly dedicated to her area of expertise, although I feel she could have discussed issues such as organ donation which would have tied in nicely with the subject. I am a retired physician and I will be dying from metastatic cancer; I don't know when, I have not asked. With the End in Mind is my attempt to capture the wisdom of dying and death, distilled into stories that take us to those places we believe are too dark to endure, and yet that are illuminated by human resilience, hope and love. Finally, Mannix uses the metaphor of 'natural birth' throughout the book to promote her vision of a 'natural death'. There were lots of peoples problems 'solved' here - rather than empowerment so that individuals and their families could be supported in choosing their own ways forward.

Many of us won’t read a book like this because we don’t want to look at death, think about death, speak about death, let alone read about Mr Grim and his rusty scythe. No two people reading them will react in the same way I imagine however I enjoyed (if I can say that about tales of death) them all and some were very special indeed.

There are not enough hospice / palliative care staff to help with deaths now (the focus is still on cancer). I also salute the brave and dignified men and women who’s stories you have sensitively jumbled and then shared with us. De ahí aburre, pues las historias son repetitivas, con un inglés bastante rebuscado y se vuelve tedioso, pues ya no hay aprendizajes prácticos, pero sí un exceso de conversaciones transcritas que sirven para entretener a unos cuantos. Now Kathryn Mannix joins this distinguished group and her voice, though quiet and calm, is distinctive. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.

From the shrinking circle of his life, from his frail body drowning in itself, he reached outwards towards the friends he was leaving.I wish I had read this book when it was published, I would have helped some patients and their families better. I’m a sucker for qualitative snippets of the great transition, and the time before and after, because I am grateful for the privilege of doing death work in my work, and I know no truer teacher than the end of life, so I was a fan of this book.

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. Dying is made special in this book because it is given back its precious highly emotionally charged as well as matter of fact place in life. I have also shared it with friends who have family needing end-of-life care - knowing the trajectory of the journey stopped it being the unknown.I found it a great comfort and now feel better equipped to talk about death, and to consider what's important in my life. What she is a big advocate of is communication, telling people what is wrong with you, getting them to ask sensitive questions, finding out if people want to be at home for their last moments, or have no real preference. I know a lot of NHS staff and they are lovely, but they are also often stressed, irritated by patients and managers, despairing of all they are expected to do in so little time for so little money. In her introduction, Mannix states that in the book, 'the experience of several people is woven into a single individual's narrative, to allow specific aspects of the journey to be depicted'.

But so often, dying people and their families remain unprepared because our fear about death has become a fear about even mentioning dying. 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. She is also aware of the lack of information about the process that is available to patients and their families.

This outstanding book, which was shortlisted for this year's Wellcome Book Prize and was written by a palliative care physician in the UK, describes several remarkable people she cared for at the end of their lives, their families and other loved ones, and her experiences and lessons learned during her four decades in clinical practice. But ultimately I have to judge With the End in Mind as a book that Mannix has written, separating it from Mannix's personal achievements, and in this context, it fell very short. Beautifully written, filled with compassion and understanding, along with a practical and kind approach to facing death. 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. Skulls used as flowerpots, bodies made into compost on a body farm, corpses covered with rose petals, funerals conducted by men with dreadlocks and purple frock coats – what Doughty relishes are those rituals that acknowledge death, its bodily fact and its emotional enormity.