Dear Life by Rachel Clarke

Dear Life is a memoir by Dr Rachel Clarke. It is a deeply personal account rooted in her work as a specialist in palliative medicine.

Key details

• Author: Dr Rachel Clarke
• Book type: memoir
• Written from the perspective of a specialist in palliative medicine
• Includes the author’s experience of her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis in 2017

Synopsis

In Dear Life, Dr Rachel Clarke writes about her daily work caring for people approaching the end of life, focusing on the practical and emotional task of bringing comfort and making dying more bearable. She reflects on what it means to choose a profession many would find too painful to face.

The book also draws on her family experience when her GP father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, testing everything she has learned. Alongside the realities of loss, she describes the hospice as a place where love, kindness, joy, tenderness, grace and compassion can be found, and considers how awareness of limited time can change the way life is lived.