There are time where I finish a book and then I need to spend some time to digest it. This was one of those books.
It is a truly raw, emotional, brave, broken, heartwarming book ‘Dear Life’ is.
Dr Rachel Clarke has achieved such an amazing, insightful, honest read when it comes to death.

We are taken on Dr Rachel’s journey as a Doctor and a palliative care Doctor. I did find it difficult in place to read- this was purely due to personal experiences.
She is very honest and talks about the frustrations of the nhs being so overstretched that it makes it difficult to ensure that individuals get the death best possible.

I found this a very honest and informative read. Yes I cried in places & smiled in others. If your frightened of death or talking about it then pick up this book and take your time reading it. Trust me you won’t regret it.
Highly recommend

Really well written. This is an emotional and raw account of caring for the dying. There is so much emotion and empathy throughout. The fact that Rachel cares about her patients and wants to give them the best care possible is evident.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. This was incredible - heartwarming, heartbreaking and fascinating, Clarke writes skillfully both about her work as a palliative care doctor (and her earlier experiences in medicine) and her experiences of her father's terminal cancer. She explores important, difficult topics with honesty, humour and warmth. An incredibly powerful read. .

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the Arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
This may seem a strange thing to write when discussing a book written by a doctor who specialises in palliative care. It was informative, emotive, engrossing and a fascinating book. The love, care and compassion shown by Rachel Clarke and the other doctors and nursing staff is awesome, as is her description of her own fathers battle with cancer and his eventual journey to end in death.
It was a very moving book which reduces the reader to tears at times and at other times to smiles and gratitude that someone’s life has ended as they would wish.
Highly recommended.

I usually leave it a couple of days after I finish a book to write my reviews but I feel compelled to capture how interesting and vital I found Dear Life. We just don't talk about dying and the processes of dying in daily life yet here I find myself middle aged with older parents, encountering the loss of precious friends young and old alike and the start of loss entering life. I found the book compelling and surprisingly funny in parts. I cried at the beautiful depictions of life and death. We are truly lucky to have quality hospice care with dedicated compassionate staff available in this country and I shall be donating even more to my local hospice. I would go so far as to suggest that this book should be required reading in terms of preparation for this inevitable part of life and loving.

I loved this book. Doctor Rachel has written a lovely, charming, compassionate book about end of life care while at the same time highlighting the frustrations of being a medic in the current climate. I loved her detailed stories of her father and I felt that I had got to know both of them at the end of the book.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Yes This beautiful book is written on many levels. It’s the story of Clarke’s own career and her decision to swap journalism for medicine. It’s her patients’ stories as she cares for them at the end of their lives. It’s a meditation on death and dying and the role of medicine. And it’s the story of her own father - himself a doctor - and his life, kindness, terminal illness and eventual death.
It works on each of those levels and is honest and tender.
My father died this year and I only wish his dying could have been blessed with the compassion and care Clarke describes and indeed advocates.
There is also a little context of where the NHS is in terms of hospice care.
I found it a compelling book - I read it over the course of just one day - and would thoroughly recommend it.

In 'Dear Life' Rachel Clarke has written an autobiography detailing her life in journalism and then as a physician specialising in palliative care.
None of us can escape death but how heartwarming to find an exploration of the depth of life that can be found in those approaching death. Her compassion is evident as she demonstrates what can only be described as making a good death. Interspersed with her work at the hospice is the illness and death of her beloved father, a gp and the man whose example led her into medicine.
I can only hope that I am fortunate enough to receive such care and commitment should I need it in the future. Tears were never far away when I read this moving and excellent account of working in an unglamorous medical discipline.

I haven't read 'Your Life in My Hands,' but from the sound of it, it fits in with the Adam Kay-inspired craze for all things relating to junior doctors. This book, which focuses on end-of-life care from the point of view of a doctor in her thirties/forties, is very different to Adam Kay's, and there were a few times when I wanted Rachel to seem more human - you feel like you know Adam with all his flaws, and while she is clearly an inspiring woman, there were times when Rachel felt a bit too saintly, diagnosing at the speed of Dr House while looking after all her patients' sanity in a cash-strapped NHS. I did find it interesting that she left a career in TV to follow in her father's footsteps as a doctor - a friend of mine did something similar and also has no regrets! When she has to deal with her own father's death, she's easier to relate to, though she still barely recounts any fear or anger beyond what you'd expect in such a harrowing situation. Clarke can't resist raising questions about what to do with 'this life,' that she can't answer fully - instead, like other writers in this area, she resorts to quoting large amounts of Larkin, who said most of it better first time round. These are very minor quibbles though. Clarke is a good writer and an extraordinary doctor, and if she's still practising palliative care, we're very lucky to have her.

This is an extremely compassionate book which will undoubtedly offer comfort and useful guidance to many readers. Having both nursed dying relatives and worked as a HCP myself, there is much I recognise although I do worry that the only experience of death that Clarke doesn't fully discuss is when dying is unpleasant or difficult.

Since a serious illness and spending time in hospital and later in lots of clinics and appointments I've been drawn to this type of book and I really do feel that Rachel Clarke is the leader in the field. Her compassion shines through every page and her emphasis on a good death being as important as a good life makes the inevitable end seem less scary.
I've sobbed my way through much of the book but am left with a positive feeling and an overwhelming feeling that the NHS must be better funded and protected, and that this is as important and any environmental cause and far more important than Brexit.