The Black Mirror: Fragments of an Obituary for Life

Description

Inspired by E. M. Forster's thought that 'Death destroys a man but the idea of it saves him', The Black Mirror takes death as an external viewpoint from which we may see our lives more clearly. Raymond Tallis looks back on his world from the standpoint of his future corpse. He reflects on the senses that opened up his late world, the elements they reveal, the distances, divisions and intimacies of space, the multifarious activities that occupied his days, his possessions, his utterances, his relationship to others, the extinguished flame that was his self, his journey towards the end, and his after-life either side of the grave.

Raymond Tallis trained as a doctor before going on to become Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience. He retired from medicine in 2006 to become a full-time writer and has written over a dozen books including, most recently, The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Michelangelo's Finger, Aping Mankind and In Defence of Wonder. In 2009, The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine named him as one of the top living polymaths in the world.

Strikingly original... The Black Mirror succeeds in capturing the smallness and simultaneous vastness of a single life. * Financial Times * It is difficult to summarise what makes this book so appealing. It comes down, as all the best writing does, to the sensibility of the author. Tallis's is not only a wide and judicious sensibility but a funny, acute and modest one. -- Salley Vickers * Observer * That a book about the inevitability of dying can look with such clear sight on the simple astonishment of living is testament to Tallis's uniquely polymathic career... Such a tremendous, inspiring book can only make me hope Tallis will write many more before his tete-a-tete with the Grim Reaper. * Scotland on Sunday * Full of striking, thoughtful insight, defamiliarising the everyday things we all take for granted. * New Scientist * Tallis writes wonderfully well, and has a relish for words... His style is genuinely entertaining * The Times Higher Education Supplement * There isn't anything I don't love about this book * The Oldie * A strange, bold, and courageous book -- John Gray * New Statesman * I admire the sheer eccentricity of this book, its oddity and ambition. Dr Tallis has tried something new, something difficult, and he has brought to a strong intelligence and linguistic facility to bear on the task. * Wall Street Journal *