That slow smile again. I love that smile! DId I think he was ugly just now? No, his face is transformed.

She'll understand what I already know - that death surrounds us all. And it tastes like metal between your teeth.

As an actor I worked for seven years with a community theater company based in London. We used improvisation techniques to take stories to young people who wouldn't normally have access to them - in prisons, hospitals, young offender's units, youth clubs and housing estates.

. . . my bones they'll burn or bury. It'll be my death.

I made a fatal error thinking he could save me.

If I learnt anything at all about terminal illness in my research, it's that the experience is different for everyone. I do believe that life becomes concentrated when it's boundaried and that death is the biggest boundary of all.

Nurses never tell you what they know. They're hired for their cheeriness and the thickness of their hair. They need to look alive and healthy, to give the patients something to aim for.