Showing titles in Death & Dying

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, MARCH 2026 'I devoured it.' - NIGELLA LAWSON 'Few people have aged so gracefully and enterprisingly as Prue. How she's done it is a revelation, full of humour and practical advice.' - DELIA SMITH 'Oh my days, this book is an absolute JOY! It is like sitting down with...

"Do Not Go Gentle is a bracing, often chilling wrestle with the ethical dilemmas surrounding the assisted death service - a deeply unsettling read, clear and powerful. Kathleen Stock remains fearless, endless, thought provoking and always entertaining." Nick Cave "Characteristically sharp...

Julian Barnes' new book is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on morality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and homage to the French writer Jules Renard. Though he warns us that 'this is not my autobiography', the result is a tour of the mind of one of our most brilliant writers.

How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Denial of Death explores how people and cultures around the world have reacted to the concept of death from celebrated cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life’s work, The Denial of Death is...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY PRIZE THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.2 BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BMA PRESIDENT’S AWARD 2017 An incredible memoir from one of the world’s most eminent heart surgeons, recalling some of the most remarkable and poignant cases he’s worked on. Grim Reaper sits on the...

When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. This book is his brilliant, unforgettable story—the life and work of the world’s first punk undertaker—but it's also about ordinary, everyday humanity and our capacity to face death with courage and compassion, to say goodbye to the people we love in our own way. 

Brought to you by Penguin. **LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2026* **Winner of the Nero Book Awards Non-Fiction Award 2025** Death of an Ordinary Man is an unforgettable account of this universal aspect of life. It is not a book about grief: it is a book about dying, and it is a...

Wendy Mitchell doesn’t fear anything anymore. After her diagnosis of young-onset dementia in 2014, all of Wendy’s old fears melted away. What more was there to be afraid of when she faced her worst fear: losing her own mind? While living with her diagnosis and facing the extreme changes that come along with a terminal illness, Wendy wrote two Sunday Times-bestselling books, went skydiving for the first time and supports multiple dementia advocacy groups in the UK. She is known for talking about living with dementia, but now – while she is still able to – she explores dying with it.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of All That Remains by Professor Sue Black, read by the author. Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and...

Whether it is pastoral care for the bereaved, discussions about the afterlife, or being called out to perform the last rites, death is part of the Reverend Richard Coles's life and work. But when his partner, the Reverend David Coles, died, shortly before Christmas in 2019, much about death took Coles by surprise. For one thing, David's death at the early age of 43 was unexpected. The man that so often assists others to examine life's moral questions now found himself in need of help. He began to look to others for guidance to steer him through his grief.

Dementia, heart failure and cancer are now the leading causes of death in industrialised nations, where life expectancy is mostly above 80. A century ago, life expectancy was about 50 and people died mainly from infectious diseases. In the Middle Ages, death was mostly caused by famine, plague, childbirth and war. In the Palaeolithic period, where our species spent 95% of its time, we frequently died from violence and accidents.

Whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it' BENJAMIN MYERS, author of The Offing 'With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom' JESSICA ANDREWS, author of Milk Teeth 'A miracle of a book . . . One of our...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient...

Before David Wilson became the UK's pre-eminent criminologist, he was just a young boy growing up in the Scottish town of Carluke. As a child, the brutal murder of a young woman rocked this small community, but very quickly a man was arrested for the crime, convicted and put behind bars. For most, life slowly carried on - case closed. 

On 10th June 2020, the scholar James Nwoye Adichie died suddenly in Nigeria. In this tender and powerful essay, expanded from the original New Yorker text, his daughter, a self-confessed daddy's girl, remembers her beloved father. Notes on Grief is at once a tribute to a long life of grace and wisdom, the story of a daughter's fierce love for a parent and a revealing examination of the layers of loss and the nature of grief.

Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row - a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year - and they're still rising. Case and Deaton, known for first sounding the alarm about deaths of despair, explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class.

“A profound exploration of what it means for all of us to live—and to die—with dignity and purpose.” —People “Visceral and lyrical.” —The Atlantic As the American born daughter of immigrants, Dr. Sunita Puri knew from a young age that the gulf between her parents' experiences and...

Brought to you by Penguin. What does it mean for us all when death is treated as a glitch and Silicon Valley invests in the “science” of eternal life? From the epic of Gilgamesh to the alchemy of the philosopher’s stone, humanity’s eternal quest for immortality – and its rejuvenation...

'A magnificent, tender book' Independent 'Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness' Guardian 'She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty' Sunday Times From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light...