1. Sugared doughnuts and circus tricks

"Now I understand there are no ordinary lives – that every death is the end of a single event in time’s history: an event so improbable as to be miraculous, and irreplaceable in every particular."

Booker Prize-longlisted author Sarah Perry's father-in-law, David, died at home nine days after a cancer diagnosis having previously been in good health. The speed of his illness outstripped that of the NHS and social care, so the majority of nursing fell to Sarah and her husband. They witnessed what happens to the body and spirit, hour by hour, as it approaches death.

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unstinting account of death by cancer, a reportage into the experience of caring, an exploration of the structural conditions of dying in the UK, and most importantly a testament to David’s life, that of an ordinary man.

Unflinching and profoundly moving, Sarah Perry confronts the taboo surrounding death and how the saddest thing she has ever seen is also the best thing she's ever done.

Episode One
A day of sugared doughnuts and circus tricks glimmers with joy, yet already carries the shadow of David's final summer, as daughter-in-law Sarah Perry recalls the small treasures that define a life.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4