Bookshop: Death and dying

If you buy from the Bookshop at St Christopher's, you are donating to our work.

The following books are available from the St Christopher's bookshop. For further information and details please contact the Librarian,Denise Brady, St Christopher's Hospice, tel 020 8768 4660.

Brayne Sue

The D-word. Talking about dying

Continuum 2010
£9.99

This is a useful book for anyone who needs to discuss death and dying as a personal issue – as a person facing death or as family or friend who knows someone in this situation and wants to have open communication about these issues.

The author describes her personal experience of death and dying. There are chapters on health professionals who can offer assistance, talking about death and dying, sudden or violent death, a guide for those supporting the dying. On a societal level, she suggests specific ways that people can be more open about talking about death and dying.

Dennison A

Uncertain journey

Patten Press
£8.95

This is a personal account - over a number of years - of the experience of being diagnosed, living with and dying of cancer. It is told by a nurse based in the UK who also worked with groups of cancer patients and wrote about this work for professional journals. It is intensely personal but it also encompasses the views of other cancer patients.

Earle S, Bartholomew C, Komaromy C (eds)

Making sense of death, dying and bereavement: an anthology

Open University Press/Sage 2009
£19.99

This is one of the set texts for the K260 Open University course on death and dying. It is comprised of 83 short pieces of writing on various aspects of death, dying and bereavement. Many are personal accounts. The texts are divided into seven sections: visual images of death, dying and disposal; death and dying in poetry, fiction and the media; death dying and bereavement on the world wide web; caring for people at the end of life; when someone dies; reflecting on traumatic death, mass death and disaster and making sense of the after-life and life after death.

Earle S, Komaromy C, Bartholomew C (eds)

Death and dying: a reader

Open University Press/Sage 2009
£20.99

This is one of the set texts for the K260 Open University course on death and dying. There are 34 contributors. Many are academics in the UK although there are also writers from many other countries. The book is divided into five sections: understanding death; caring at the end of life; moral and ethical dilemmas in practice; exploring grief and ritual after death; and researching death, dying and bereavement.

Fenwick P, Fenwick E.

The art of dying

Continuum 2008
£11.99

This book focuses on the time of death – accounts by the dying and those who care for them about the final hours of life. The authors consider that evidence suggests we are more than brain function and that something – soul or spirit or consciousness – will continue in some form or another for a while at least. Chapters include deathbed visions, explaining coincidences, bereavement and hallucinations and dying a good death.

Kubler-Ross E

On death and dying

Tavistock Publications 1969
£17.99

This is a classic text, which has been criticised for the fact that it outlines stages of mourning in a way that is too prescriptive. These stages were initially applied to dying people but were then considered relevant to many bereaved people. Its most important attribute is the fact that it emphasises the importance of the psychosocial care of dying people.

Lee E

In your own time. A guide for patients and their carers facing a last illness at home

Oxford University Press, 2002
£17.99

This is an excellent resource for patients and their families who want to know more about living with advanced illness. It covers emotional as well as practical issues around bad news and facing death - it describes the role of various health professionals who can help, the choices one has in terms of place of care, and common symptoms and their treatment. It has a short section on last days of life and an appendix of useful resources.

Mayne Michael

The enduring melody

Darton Longman and Todd 2006
£10.95

Michael Mayne was Dean of Westminster and a former trustee of St Christopher’s. This is a book that reflects his philosophy of life but is also about facing the end of his life with throat cancer. He is an inspirational writer and always shows his wide knowledge of the arts in his writing.

Mitchell M (ed)

Remember me: constructing immortality - beliefs on immortality, life and dying

Routledge 2007
£21.95

Explores a range of perspectives on the meanings attributed to death and to constructions of immortality in a collection of 17 chapters written by an international group of contributors. The authors challenge current notions of bereavement and the boundary between life and death and look at the ways in which relationships continue, endure and perhaps grow after biological death. Ranges from an article on “dark tourism” to complaints in the NHS.