A Beginners Guide to Dying

As featured on BBC Radio 4'Funny and touching' Sunday Times'Extraordinary' Observer'Full of both wisdom and humour' Julia Samuel'Funny, moving, brave' Jeremy Bowen'I had the privilege to conduct Simon’s last broadcast interview - knowing his wise words on the page could live on afterwards' Emma Barnett*****READER REVIEWS'Simon’s cheerful voice comes through every page''An absolute gift of a book ... This book has the potential to change your life''Stunning'It isn't quite 'Don't buy any green bananas'. But it's close to 'Don't start any long books'.

In his mid-40s, Simon Boas was diagnosed with incurable cancer – it had been caught too late, and spread around his body. But he was determined to die as he had learned to live – optimistically, thinking the best of people, and prioritising what really matters in life. In A Beginner’s Guide to Dying Simon considers and collates the things that have given him such a great sense of peace and contentment, and why dying at 46 really isn’t so bad.

And for that reason it’s also only partly about ‘dying’. It is mostly a hymn to the joy and preciousness of life, and why giving death a place can help all of us make even more of it.