Free reading with Michel Faber for Dying Matters Awareness Week

The acclaimed writer Michel Faber will read from his latest collection, Undying; a love story, at an event hosted by the School of English in conjunction with Pilgrims Hospices, at 6pm on Thursday 11 May, 2017.

Undying honours the memory of Michel’s wife, Eva, who died in 2014 after a long battle with cancer. The poems are addressed to Eva after her death and chronicle what it means for somebody to care for and to lose their partner to cancer as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week 2017.

The event will conclude with a panel discussion with Michel Faber (pictured), clinical staff from Pilgrims Hospices and Senior Lecturer Dr Stella Bolaki from the School of English looking at what it means to write and talk openly about death, grief and end of life care.

The event will take place in the Keynes Senior Common Room, Keynes College, Canterbury Campus, University of Kent, CT2 7NP and those interested in attending can book online to secure a place.

The reading is free to attend but there will be donation tins for anyone who would like to contribute to the work of Pilgrims Hospices.

Michel Faber has written numerous works of fictions, including the novels The Book of Strange New ThingsThe Crimson Petal and the WhiteThe Fahrenheit Twins and the Whitbread-shortlisted novel Under the Skin.

An extract from Undying:

All I can do, in what remains of my brief time,

is mention, to whoever cares to listen,

that a woman once existed, who was kind

and beautiful and brave, and I will not forget

how the world was altered, beyond recognition,

when we met.