Death by any other name

Don't let the title fool you: this isn't a morbid book. It's a collection of stories about death and dying, yes, but death isn't morbid in itself. Death is a fact, sudden or sad, tragic or inevitable, and it can leave us bereft - but it isn't morbid. Our perception of it often is. But it doesn't have to be.

This is a collection of seven stories about death and dying, five of them new to this book and two published before, in another collection. They're a little about how we deal with death, the fact of it, and how we can never be prepared, no matter how much advance notice we have. They're a little about honouring the dead, a little about living in their honour, but mostly they're about being alive.

The dead don't need anything from us; it's the living that need our kindness. All we can do for the dead, if we feel that something must be done, is to use the privileges of the living. To laugh, and cry, and ring the bells and turn up when we're needed. To find our better place in this life, and live it in the most uncontained way possible, and be more careful of the memories we make than the memories we'll keep.