“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows
he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully”
Samuel Johnson
There certainly seems to be an
added edge to the prose of writers who, whether for scientific or personal
reasons, turn their attention to old age and the prospect of one's life ending.
I last blogged on
the subject all of three years ago and a recent conversation with one of my
daughters has moved me to have another look at the dozen or so books on this
topic on my bookshelves – and to track down a few for inclusion in the
virtual library. So the core of this post is actually an analysis of the 20 or
so books I know on the subject – inspired also, I suspect, by my reading last
week of the very poetic “My Father’s Wake”
Given the rise in both numbers
and purchasing power of the “Wrinklies”, it is perhaps surprising that we have
not attracted more innovation (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) – in fields
such as housing, euthanasia and burial, let alone politics….
We do need to give more thought to how we will leave this life - but we
fail to do so….both as individuals and collectively…Perhaps the title I’ve been
using for one unfinished set of collected thoughts – “Dispatches
to the Next Generation” – is one small gesture in that direction. Of course its focus on the mess we in the older generation have made of
the world makes for a completely different sort of book than those analysed
below. The hyperlinks generally give useful reviews - and sometimes the book itself...
Books
about Ageing and the approach of Death
Title
|
Year
|
Genre
|
Comment
|
Links
|
The American Way of Death; Jessica Mitford
|
1963
|
journalism
|
Analysis of the crematorium business
|
|
On Death and Dying; Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross
click to get the entire book
|
1969
|
psychology
|
The book that gave us the “five stages
of grief”
|
This
extended interview with the author is quite superb
|
The Coming of Age; Simone de Beauvoir
|
1970 French
version
|
Breaks all disciplinary barriers!
|
The classic
|
|
The Denial of Death; Ernest Becker
|
1973
|
Cultural anthropology
|
A “psycho-philosophical synthesis” –
all 330 pages
|
Hyperlink on title gives full book
|
The Loneliness of The Dying by Norbert Elias
|
1985
|
sociology
|
A short rather general book by an
underrated Anglo-German
|
|
The End of Age
– BBC Reith Lectures by Tom Kirkwood
|
2001
|
Gerontology
|
Link on the title gives podcasts
|
|
Ammonites
and Leaping Fish – a Life in Time Penelope Lively
|
2003
|
Memoir
|
||
Nothing to be Frightened Of; Julian Barnes
|
2007
|
Extended essay
|
Good on references
|
A rather gentle way into the subject nicely
reviewed here
|
Somewhere Towards the End; Diana Athill
|
2008
|
Memoir
|
Marvellous writer covers latter stages of a long life
|
Click the title for the entire book
|
The Long Life; Helen Small
|
2007
|
Literary
|
Written by a Professor of English
language and literature
|
Compendium of writing about ageing over
2000 years. A good review
here
|
2011
|
Popular science
|
Professor of Biology
Age 80 when he wrote it
|
||
2012
|
philosophy
|
Philosopher who knows how to tell a
great tale
|
Click on title for full book
good review
here
|
|
2013
|
sociology
|
Almost an update of de Beauvoir!
|
||
Being Mortal – illness, medicine and what matters in
the end; by Atul Gawande
|
2015
|
Reflective medical
|
a very literate and humane American
surgeon,
|
|
2014
|
Humour
|
was the most famous British campaigner
of the second half of the century.
|
||
|
2015
|
philosophy
|
retired British gerontologist, poet and
polymath
|
|
2015
|
psychology
|
American psychologists update and
popularise Becker’s thesis about our repression of death
|
||
“Smoke
Gets in Your Eyes: and Other Lessons from the Crematorium” Caitlin Doughty
|
2015
|
journalism
|
||
2017
|
journalism
|
Poetic but doesn’t deal with issues
|
||
2017
|
medical
|
A “palliative” doctor profiles in depth
her patients
|
|
|
The Way we Die Now; Seamus O’Mahony
|
2017
|
medical
|
A Consultant “Gastroenterologist”
|
Every
Third Death – life, death and the endgame; Robert McCrum
|
2017
|
Literary journalist
|
An extended essay – with a nice little bibliography
|
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