Swift Press, 2024
ISBN 978-1800755031
Reviewed by Piers Warren
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I first heard about Simon Boas on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme where he was reading out an article he had written that had been published in the Jersey Evening Post – his local paper. This article was the second of three that he had written for the paper and it had gone viral, shared with millions of people across the world.
He was 46 and had been diagnosed with terminal cancer that had spread around his body, yet was talking cheerfully, optimistically, thinking the best of people, and prioritising what really matters in life. That someone at his age, with only weeks to live, could talk so positively about life and death is the nub of what made his articles so popular. As a result of the thousands of thankful and admiring messages he received from readers of the articles, he decided to produce a book about his thoughts, despite his looming demise and the fatigue he must have been feeling from the treatments and the disease itself. The result is A Beginner’s Guide to Dying which was published in September 2024, just two months after his death in July.
After a foreword there follows those three articles from the Jersey Evening Post, then the majority of the book is made up of a section he calls ‘Death and Equanimity’ in which he explores areas such as perspective, gratitude, God and religion, hope and acceptance, optimism, regrets and bucket lists. Although it is a short publication, his views and experience of those areas do indeed make up a valuable handbook of how to cope with imminent death. That might sound gloomy but the reason his writings have been so popular is the cheerfulness with which he conveys his thoughts.
Although the book will be of particular use to those in a similar situation, or for those caring for, or close to, someone who is close to death, it occurred to me that the wealth of wisdom throughout is of use to all of us, whatever stage of life we are at. It is one of those classic books that you wish everybody would read and the world would then be a better place. The author spent much of his life working as an overseas aid worker and certainly had a dramatic and exciting life, witnessing some of the worst and the best that humankind can inflict on themselves. Clearly these experiences helped shaped his views on life and death and how to deal with other people.
One of his main themes that he returns to several times in the book is the fact that we are so lucky to be here at all. That the evolution of life on Earth was so unlikely in the first place, and reliant on complex natural systems and environments being precisely aligned, right to the miniscule chance that a particular sperm that carries part of your genes and makes you who you are, found the particular egg that gave you the rest of your make-up. To be here at all, against such huge odds, is what gives the author his appreciation for life (however short) and determination to seize everything from it. To exist is to have won the lottery of life. As he says in the book: “Carpe that diem and keep it carped”!
A later chapter in the book is entitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Interacting with the Dying’, which is made up of a series of ‘Dont’s and Dos’ (mostly dont’s) especially when it comes to how to talk to those nearing the end of life. It really struck me how this should actually be a guide to how we talk to everyone at any time, and reminded me of the many occasions when people have said the most unhelpful things to me while probably thinking they were being kind. Valuable stuff.
Overall I highly recommend this book. I found myself jotting down the occasional nuggets of wisdom which is not something I often do! One of those books I know I will keep and refer back to at various points in my miraculous life.