{"id":1583,"date":"2018-09-04T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2018-07-02T16:26:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T15:26:09","slug":"book-review-cicely-saunders-a-life-and-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/09\/04\/book-review-cicely-saunders-a-life-and-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Clark, <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/cicely-saunders-9780190637934?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;\"><em>Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy<\/em><\/a>, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 335pp., \u00a325.99 hardcover, ISBN: 9780190637934<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1584 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2018\/07\/9780190637934-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2018\/07\/9780190637934-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/files\/2018\/07\/9780190637934.jpg 364w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed by Joe Wood, University of Glasgow<\/p>\n<p>This biography, almost 20 years in gestation, provides an encyclopaedic account of the life of Cicely Saunders, often described as the founder of the modern hospice movement. The book comprises detailed chapters on Saunders\u2019 childhood, her nursing and social work, her medical training, her planning for St Christopher\u2019s Hospice, the global expansion of the hospice movement, and her later life. These are broken down into non-linear thematic sections in order to give a sense for each period of research, personal and religious developments in Saunders\u2019 life, alongside key concepts and figures in the development of what would become palliative care.\u00a0 These chronological chapters are bookended by a prologue and epilogue written in the first person explaining Clark\u2019s personal encounters with Saunders, his understanding of her legacy and his vision for future research in what he tentatively terms \u2018Saunders studies\u2019 (318).<\/p>\n<p>Like many people who achieve great things, Saunders was something of a self-mythologiser and Clark carefully navigates her complicated background as a nurse, social worker, medic and (initially) a social science student, as well as her early, difficult (and later unorthodox) family life. His extensive archival research is palpable and is corralled into passages which bring valuable context to, for example, Saunders\u2019 relationship with David Tasma or the gestation of her early ground-breaking publications on pain management. But the book is also informed by numerous interviews conducted by Neil Small and later Clark, which often provide the vital sense of a living individual, annoying neighbours by erupting into noise with friends at 10pm or inviting visitors into her office for a double scotch.<\/p>\n<p>In part due to the candid nature of Clark\u2019s later interviews, this was always planned as a posthumous book and it clearly has a freer rein than the earlier biography of Shirley du Boulay (1984) whose text was repeatedly altered by Saunders\u2019 keen eye for posterity. Clark often positions himself as a critical friend to the current practice of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care, someone who supports its aims and outlook but maintains a critical distance in order to shine light on areas for improvement. As such, he is not afraid to address how the hospice movement rests in part on Saunders\u2019 two ethically dubious relationships with Polish men dying in her care, although he is careful not to pass judgement on complicated events for which he only has one side of the story. That said, he is happy to muddy the waters of Saunders\u2019 fairly clear origin story of hospice; for example, slyly suggesting that Tasma\u2019s much-quoted motto \u2018I\u2019ll be a window in your home\u2019 is \u2018unverified in the contemporary record\u2019 (60).<\/p>\n<p>The book will be of direct interest to a wide range of those within the palliative care community as well as more general readers sympathetic to Saunders\u2019 emphasis on the holistic care of the whole person. Moreover, with his blend of historiography and sociology, Clark also appeals to medical humanities scholars and, through his initial enquiries into some of Saunders\u2019 literary influences such as C S Lewis or Julian of Norwich, opens the door to further research in this area.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Clark, Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 335pp., \u00a325.99 hardcover, ISBN: 9780190637934 Reviewed by Joe Wood, University of Glasgow This biography, almost 20 years in gestation, provides an encyclopaedic account of the life of Cicely Saunders, often described as the founder of the modern hospice movement. The book [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/09\/04\/book-review-cicely-saunders-a-life-and-legacy\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2965],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Book Review: Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/09\/04\/book-review-cicely-saunders-a-life-and-legacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Clark, Cicely Saunders: A Life and Legacy, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 335pp., \u00a325.99 hardcover, ISBN: 9780190637934 Reviewed by Joe Wood, University of Glasgow This biography, almost 20 years in gestation, provides an encyclopaedic account of the life of Cicely Saunders, often described as the founder of the modern hospice movement. 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