Cover Reveal of My Final Book With Wendy Mitchell

It felt strange typing those words in the headline to this newsletter. Bittersweet. You see, I thought when Wendy and I wrote SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW that it would be our first and last book together.

But I remember in the first lockdown of 2020 saying to Wendy: “You know what, I think we have another book in us.”

And that’s how WHAT I WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT DEMENTIA was born.

Both of these books have been Sunday Times Bestsellers in hardback and paperback, and the beauty of them both is that they are not just books about dementia, they are life-affirming books, they take a lens (in this case dementia) and they look out at the world through it, and there is so much wisdom packed inside them, so much life philosophy, so much we can learn about how to live.

And so, perhaps it makes sense then that there is so much we can learn about how to die too, and it doesn’t have to be depressing, and sad, and morbid, because as we say on the back cover of this new book, to talk about death is to get on with living.

It was in early 2022 when WHAT I WISH PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT DEMENTIA was published in hardback that I said those now infamous words to Wendy again: “You know what, I think we have another book in us.”

Wendy and I have become firm friends through our work together, and we often talk about topics that others might shy away from, and so it seemed to make sense to me that we could tackle together a topic like death, and also the case for assisted dying.

When we set out on this journey together, we came to it with no fixed ideas. We particularly did not want to write a book that told others how they should be doing death, or what they should think about assisted dying. We agreed at the start to be open-minded. We agreed to invite people – so many different people, with all different kinds of stories about living and dying – to come and sit round a table with us and tell us what they thought. Yes, Wendy and I believe in choice, but we also know that assisted dying is a contentious subject so we were prepared to have our minds changed as well.

Did we? Well I guess you will have to read the book!

Yesterday on her blog, Wendy revealed the new cover. You can read what she had to say about it here.

But today in my newsletter, I am sharing it with you. So here goes, here is the cover to our final book together, ONE LAST THING.

This is not a book about dementia, it is not a book about dying with dementia, it is a book about living with death in mind so that you can enjoy the only thing we really do have, and that is the single moment.

I hope the back cover of ONE LAST THING will persuade you that, like with our other books, there is nothing to be scared of:

So there it is, the story of how one book turned into two, and then three. The trilogy we never imagined is complete. We are so proud, but of course, it is sad for us both that our writing journey has come to an end – as all good things tend to.

Pre-orders are now open for ONE LAST THING, and for those who don’t know, pre-orders are like gold dust for authors because every sale before publication day counts towards those precious first week’s figures – so let’s see if we can make it a hat-trick in the Sunday Times Bestsellers!

You can help us by pre-ordering ONE LAST THING here. It is out June 22.

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