I am naturally a little biased but this is a lovely book which highlights the simultaneous futility and the beauty of life. This unusual and important book is a series of reflections on death in all its forms: the science of it, the medicine, the tragedy and the comedy. We are all going to die, at some stage, and decisions we make will inform our declining years - from 25 years on. This is a big omission and the book would have been far more rounded had it touched upon this aspect of ageing and dying. We all need to have conversation about what we want in the end and keep the conversation going with your family.

This wonderfully enlightening book by a doctor who cares for the dying is a plea for all of us to consider now what a good death should look like and what we’d want for ourselves. It is a bitter-sweet reflection of a life well lived but one that is courageous enough to face the realities of life and the human condition.If a doctor can perform an abortion or transgender operation I don’t understand why a patient can’t request an end of life assist. Anything we prepare for is so much easier to handle than becoming overwhelmed due to our lack of tools to sort things out clearly. Like many lapsed Catholics the author is sometimes guilty of imagining that a Roman Catholic understanding of how to respond to death and what religion means is the only valid (but wrong) way of being religious. Jarrett explains how we can ensure that our last years are comfortable and not a burden to us, the health care system and, most importantly, our loved ones. I would highly recommend reading it and then discussing its contents with family members and your GP.

It presents a cogent argument for an alternative approach to the end of life from the one that has seen us sacrifice quality of years for quantity. I struggled a bit in the beginning and wondered if this was going to be another medical professional having a pop at the NHS and government and so on. This is reflected less in his observations - which are more evenhanded - than in his sweeping asides and unfortunately these do intrude given the subject matter of what is otherwise a thoughtful and interesting book about dying. It’s fantastic - every chapter left me reflecting on my own life, what I would like for the people I love and what I hope my children will experience.This book was recommended and whilst I did find it interesting in parts, generally it's a tad sad and depressing ( as it would be given the subject matter) For me, the book lacked any spiritual depth. This book reinforces all the things that we suspect about ageing which none of us really wants to own. I read this book over the course of one day and now I am passing it on to friends to read and discuss. It is striking how the candour of our public discourse fails when we get on to the subject of death, a significant and puzzling failure for it is the fate we all share.

I discovered this book after a guest speaker on a radio 4 programme mentioned it and thought I’d give it a go.Brilliant - a grimly humourous yet humane account of the realities of growing old in the modern age. I am happy to talk on end of life decisions in the elderly, dementia prevention, the history of stroke disease, biological ageing or other topics covered in 33 Meditation on Death. ACT Contact / FAQ About Events / Videos Merch / Subs Sign in/up 33 Meditations on Death : Notes from the Wrong End of Medicine dAVID jARRETT More by this author. David Jarrett's 33 Meditations, the fruit of forty years of professional experience with people at the end of their lives, is not only timely and important, but hugely enjoyable. Too much medicine and too little helping people and their families gain a realistic vision of old age and dying.