The Welcome Visitor

'This is an important book. It needs to be ... we are coming to realise that a life well lived might decently conclude with a death well and timely died' TERRY PRATCHETT 'Impassioned and impressive' SUNDAY TIMES 'A powerful, compassionate book' FT ON SUNDAY * * * * * * * From presenter of Radio 4's Today & national treasure John Humphrys, one of the first books to deal unflinchingly with death and dying well, written in conjunction with a high-profile GP. Death is a subject modern society shies away from. Even doctors avoid the word. But if we regard death as a failure in our desire to prolong life, can we ever arrive at a humane approach to those whose lives have lost meaning? Are we keeping people alive simply because we can? Inspired by his own experience with his father's death from Alzheimer's, John Humphrys and co-author Dr Sarah Jarvis take a wider look at how our attitudes to death have changed as doctors have learned how to prolong life beyond anything that could have been imagined only a few generations ago, and confront one of the great challenges facing the western world today. There are no easy answers but the first step must surely be to accept that death can be as welcome as it is inevitable. The Welcome Visitor is a book which brings genuine knowledge and insight to a taboo subject, while asking the difficult questions that need to be asked about our attitudes and approach to the realities of end-of-life care.