Cancer
Is it time to clean up my act?
I was having a drink in the Bishops’ Bar in the House of Lords last month when I was introduced…
Fools will love it: We Live in Time reviewed
We Live in Time is a rom-com (of sorts), starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. They have terrific chemistry and…
The mystery of Area X: Absolution, by Jeff VanderMeer, reviewed
We are never told the exact location of this highly toxic zone in Florida, but any scientist investigating it has been monstrously affected, either physically or mentally
Politicians aren’t discussing Britain’s woeful cancer survival rates
Last week, amid a flurry of election policies and debates, a striking report found that cancer survival in England currently…
The diary of a dying man: Graham Caveney’s poignant cancer memoir
With months to live, Caveney looks back on his childhood, muses on favourite writers, decries NHS underfunding and rejoices in his beloved partner, Emma
A war reporter bravely faces death – but not from sniper fire
As a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, Rod Nordland learned to expect many dangers, but a brain tumour wasn’t one of them
Could I be pregnant?
At the age of 59 I thought it was time to get my body thoroughly examined. So last week I…
Tales of the Midwest
Violence and death are balanced by hard-won, transcendent joy in Beard’s remarkable stories that merge fiction and memoir
Communing with an ancestor
Ian Marchant, diagnosed with cancer in 2020, takes comfort from his ancestor’s diary (1714-28), recording a full life as farmer and mainstay of his parish
Low life
After commuting to Marseille for nine days of radiotherapy, I spent the week alone in the cave, in bed, in…
Low life
Our neighbour Michael is a keen and knowledgable attender of vides-greniers, the equivalent of our car-boot sales. His focus is…
Low life
At eight o’clock in the morning a nurse injected me with a radioactive marker and told me to go away…
Low life
Two football friends, brothers, Mick and Pete, came to visit last week. We’ve been going to matches together since 1969,…
Loved and lost
Richard E. Grant pulls off a feat here. The title is twee but the content isn’t. With unselfpitying dash the…
Low life
In Frederic Manning’s classic Great War novel, The Middle Parts of Fortune, the shattered battalion shambles out of the line…
Bittersweet memories
This is a deceptively slim novel. Its 96 pages contain multitudes: two lives, past and present, seamlessly interwoven. The narrator,…
Last words
Facing up to the prospect of one’s own mortality is always jarring; but when you’ve spent your life trying, and…
Low life
My days pass largely in a state of inanition. The fit and able-bodied express their sympathy, claiming it’s much the…
Low life
‘But you look so well!’ How many times have I heard that lately. Kindly meant by most, but for a…
Low life
The main side effect of the six-month course of chemotherapy was ‘fatigue’. The main side effect of the three-monthly hormone…
Low life
On the morning of my last day in England, I drew back a curtain and there in the garden, browsing…
Low life
I was walking across a fallow field to the pub with my two grandsons. ‘What’s this?’ said my 11-year-old Oscar,…
Low life
Speaking pretty good English, Dr Tayeb came straight to the point. Was I eligible for the ground breaking new cancer…
The cancer care timebomb that desperately needs to be fixed
As many as 100,000 patients had a cancer that was missed, or had their diagnoses or treatments delayed during the…
Low life
‘We’re at war!’ said the taxi man as I installed myself for the long drive to Marseille. I put a…
