Henry Marsh – författare

'A SUPERB ACHIEVEMENT' IAN MCEWAN* * * * *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.* * * * *Winner:PEN Ackerley Prize South Bank Sky Arts Award for LiteratureShortlisted:Costa Biography AwardDuff Cooper PrizeWellcome Book PrizeGuardian First Book AwardSlightly Foxed Best First Biography PrizeLonglisted:Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

'Sensational' SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Extraordinary . . . both exhilarating and alarming . . . fascinating' DAILY MAIL'Wonderful . . . a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit' FINANCIAL TIMESHenry 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.

Use the power of principles to transform your life. In his repeated bids for Olympic gold, Henry Marsh learned that the highest degree of reward and satisfaction is to be found in the unswerving pursuit of personal excellence. The Breakthrough Factor is Marsh's comprehensive plan to achieve a life of value by determining what principles or values to live by and thus find the fulfillment and reward we all desire. Here, Marsh provides a plan for clarifying dreams, rooting out negative influences, setting priorities, establishing plans of action, and meeting goals. He shows how to ensure incredible results in all spheres of life -- in relationships, financial circumstances, career decisions, physical health -- by making choices and arranging priorities around a fruitful set of values and beliefs.

Following The Guidman’s Daughter with his poems on Mary, Queen of Scots, Marsh begins this new collection with a sequence exploring the life and times of John Knox, locating this ambivalent figure in the turmoil of the Scottish Reformation. Marsh moves via Kepler and Darwin into a celebration of nature, searching within our secular world to ‘find a language’ to render its mystery and concludes by touching on the great challenges we now face. Our striving to understand the nature of things hints, perhaps, at the possibility of a different kind of redemption.

**BBC DOCUMENTARY CONFESSIONS OF A BRAIN SURGEON IS OUT NOW**From the No.1 bestselling author of Do No Harm, an entrancing and uplifting meditation on the gift of life.‘A book to treasure and reread’ Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human BeingAs 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