Description

The last book from bestselling author and advocate Wendy Mitchell
‘This beautiful book will give hope and courage to many people’ Kathryn Mannix
‘An uplifting memoir that reminds us we should relish every moment’ Daily Mail
‘A really thoughtful and thorough exploration of end-of-life concerns’ Professor Celia Kizinger

After her diagnosis of young-onset dementia in 2014, Wendy spoke affectionately about the liberating feeling that came with having open conversations and confronting life’s obstacles head on. So, in the years leading up to her death, Wendy set out to have what would be her most important conversation: to explore what options are available – and what options are denied – at the end of life.

Courageous, balanced and wise, One Last Thing lists the practical ways that we can prepare for death, offers the gentle words to raise the topic with our loved ones and consults leading experts to educate us on the topic of assisted dying.

Publisher Review

Very compelling . . . A really thoughtful and thorough exploration of end-of-life concerns - shared, I know, by many people with dementia diagnoses and their families. Strong and clear about your own values, you recognise and support others' choices too. -- Professor Celia Kizinger One Last Thing is wonderful .... [Wendy,] thank you for writing it, thank you for listening to so many voices and for unpicking the threads to find the details that you needed to know. Thank you for thinking aloud, for 'showing your working out,' so others can follow you along the winding road into the future . . . your book will give hope and courage to many people, because as we both know when we speak about dying we always find ourselves reflecting on living. This beautiful book is an uplifting and courageous read, and I am incredibly proud to know you. -- Kathryn Mannix As wise and wonderful as you might imagine, having the vital conversation about death - hers & ours, in her final book. Don't duck this one: you will be glad you joined her. -- Professor Tom Shakespeare Anyone who reads Mitchell's work can only admire her passion, her energy and her extraordinary courage. She is absolutely right that we need to talk more about death. She is right that we need to plan for it * Sunday Times * [An] urgent, humane manifesto on how to care for and about those edging towards the finality of death * Telegraph * Remarkable . . . One Last Thing is packed with useful thoughts and advice on how we might best plan for the end . . . I hope that doesn't sound depressing or morbid, because this book is anything but * The Times * One Last Thing, stares death in the face, but it's also a clarion cry to enjoy the time you have left * i * An uplifting memoir that reminds us we should relish every moment * Daily Mail * A journey exploring all angles of death * Tablet * Powerful * Observer * One Last Thing - the best and most useful book I have read this year - is about how to die with dementia, a subject doctors tend not to address. She does not want to 'slip over the edge', she explains, and spend her last years inside a black hole . . . One Last Thing is an argument for assisted dying and also, invaluably, a guide to the paperwork and acronyms involved, including ACP, ReSPECT, LPA and DNACPR forms. It is curious, Mitchell notes, how little value we place on a good death when the death rate among us is 100 per cent -- Frances Wilson * Spectator: Best Books of the Year 2023 *