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• Good Grief Weston – An evening with Dr Rachel Clarke

Good Grief Weston – An evening with Dr Rachel Clarke

Suitable for all ages from 12 years +

Join Dr Rachel Clarke as she discusses her extraordinary latest book and wider works, with Professor Lucy Selman, from the University of Bristol. Questions are welcomed from the audience. 

Rachel Clarke is an English doctor specialising in palliative care for the National Health Service. She’s also an author, journalist and activist. Formerly a current affairs journalist, Rachel retrained to work as a doctor in 2009 and firmly believes that there is a good way to approach end of life care.  Rachel has written several bestselling books including Dear Life: A Doctor’s Story of Love, Loss & Consolation and Breathtaking: The UK’s Human Story of Covid.

Reviewing her book Dear Life: A Doctor’s Story of Love and Loss (2020), Guardian reviewer Nicci Gerrard wrote ‘In her heart-wrenchingly tender and candid account of being alongside people at their endings, she shines a light into the world of the dying.’

Breathtaking (2021) is an unflinching insider’s account of medicine in the time of coronavirus, and was adapted as a three-part series on ITV earlier this year, gaining rave reviews  as “compulsory viewing” (The Standard), and “breathtakingly good” (The Times).  

Rachel’s next book The Story of a Heart, set for publication in September this year, has already been hailed as “the best narrative non-fiction I’ve read in years” (Christie Watson). It explores transplant surgery through the story of two children—one of whom desperately needs a new heart. Rachel observes: “The first of our organs to form, the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of all that makes us human: as long as it continues to beat, we hope”.

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident. Though her brain and the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max had been hospitalised for nearly a year with a virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family.  The Story of a Heart  is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift – a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honour our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.   

‘Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring’  Rob Delaney