‘A book to treasure and reread’ Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being

As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but even he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer.

In And Finally, he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient. As the days pass, his mind turns to his career, to the people and places he has known, and to creative projects still to be completed.

Yet he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and nature, by his love for his family, and – most of all – by what it is to be alive.

* A Daily Telegraph, The Times and Financial Times Book of the Year *

‘Magnificent’ Rachel Clarke

‘Vividly wry and honest’ The Times

‘I admire this book enormously’ Philip Pullman

‘Enthralling’ Guardian

As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself.

Retired brain surgeon Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence.
As Henry navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end.

‘Magnificent’ Rachel Clarke, author of Breath-taking

‘Given its subject – broadly, death and disease – the book is unexpectedly fun, and the author pretty much irresistibly likable’ Guardian

‘Facing his own mortality, Marsh has written a vividly wry and honest book’ The Times

‘Marsh shares his journey with a dark yet whimsical humour, and ponders too the eternal mysteries of time’ Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year 2022

‘Extraordinary…both exhilarating and alarming…fascinating’ DAILY MAIL

‘Wonderful…a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit’ FINANCIAL TIMES

Henry Marsh has spent four decades operating on the human brain. In this searing and provocative memoir following his retirement from the NHS, he reflects on the experiences that have shaped his career and life, gaining a deeper understanding of what matters to us all in the end.

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What is it like to be a brain surgeon?

How does it feel to hold someone’s life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?

How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?

DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life’s most agonising decisions.

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Winner:
PEN Ackerley Prize
South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature

Shortlisted:
Costa Biography Award
Duff Cooper Prize
Wellcome Book Prize
Guardian First Book Award
Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize

Longlisted:
Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction