Life, death and cartography

A great candid interview with author Stella Duffy on the BBC Radio 4 is worth clicking on if you have a spare 7 minutes. She discusses her novel “State of Happiness” (a very moving story of love, death and cartography) and her own journey with breast cancer.

As Stella says, “I don’t think we talk about death enough, we don’t talk about disease enough, it’s a really normal life thing. People die, we are all going to die, it’s how it is – and unless we embrace it easier, better, more willingly I think we are going to keep on giving ourselves a really hard time.”

It is a refreshing discussion about life, death, language and much more (and surprisingly uplifting too.)


While you are there, you might like to listen* to writer Sally Brampton talk about depression and her memoir “Shoot the Damn Dog”. She also discusses tools for contentment and ways of helping a child deal with a depressed parent.

*Note: interview with Sally begins 10 minutes into the podcast.