Jenny Diski’s cancer diary: 'I too shall cease'

In 2014 author Jenny Diski was diagnosed with terminal cancer and began her acclaimed farewell diary. She died on 28 April, aged 68

• Jenny Diski obituary: ‘A writer for whom no subject was taboo’
  

If it were a race, the first man home – except for Iain Banks who won the trophy by a mile – would be Oliver Sacks (announced 19 February 2015 – died 30 August), with Henning Mankell (announced 17 January 2015 – died 5 October) a close second. Lisa Jardine won a race of her own, staying shtum publicly, her death a surprise except to the few who knew. So Clive James (announced May 2011 – ?) and Diski (announced 11 September 2014 – ?) still battle it out for third place. In the other kind of race, last man standing, James and Diski would be meandering towards first and second place, Sacks and Mankell having already taken third and last place. These are the writers who within the last year or so (nearly five years in James’s case) have publicly announced their forthcoming death from cancer, of one sort or another.

It’s a delicate balance, this publicising of one’s cancer. The public’s interest is fixated on when each of them will die. For some reason cancer is the disease of choice for public tongue-wagging. It has that something, that je ne sais quoi, not just death, but how long known beforehand: how will she die, should she choose to try for a longer life by accepting treatment, or settle for palliative care, which at its best is a comfortable death without pain. No one so far as I know has written a column or agreed to an interview to announce that they have flu, or arthritis in their left knee, and how the medication is going. It’s not that flu or arthritis couldn’t be made interesting – it all depends on the writer – but in the cancer cases, it isn’t the quality of the writing that’s being judged, but the murky details of the illness that will remove each candidate from the board, and if it doesn’t the audience will feel cheated.

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