Death

Available for over a year

Bridget Kendall's guests consider the best way to think about our own death. What is the best way to prepare for it? After a life as a literary editor, Diana Athill has become well known for her frank and eloquent memoirs and thoughts on her impending death. Now at the age of 94, she has come to relish life in an old people's home. Pauline Chen has to deal with life and death in her daily work as a liver transplant and cancer surgeon. She thinks doctors could benefit from thinking more about the way we handle death and the emotional impact it has on the patient's family. She has written about the subject both as a book and as an online column for the New York Times. And the poet Paul Muldoon from Northern Ireland shares his personal experiences of dealing with the death of his sister, as well, as his latest work based on the verses of The Bible's Book of Lamentations.