The Enduring Melody

‘An heroic book. Begun in health as a meditation on a lifetime’s faith and experience, it ends in mortal sickness with Michael Mayne facing death. But his courage, his humour and his tone of voice do not desert him; humbling and inspiring, it is a validation both of his faith and his humanity.’Alan Bennett‘A testimony to the power of faith and hope not to banish but to grow alongside pain and loss as a realisable potential of consciousness. It is a brave and moving account of one man’s effort to celebrate life at its most testing and inexplicable.’ Salley Vickers, The Times‘Michael Mayne uses the knowledge of his approaching end to look back over his life and trace the ‘enduring melody’ which has sung through him, all his life. The melody is not arrogant or without uncertainty, but it knows that it is responding to the original music of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the music of one individual and unrepeatable life lived in relation to God, and it will inspire its readers and hearers to listen for the enduring melody in their own lives, and begin to try to harmonise.’Jane and Rowan Williams‘An autobiography of dying. It was brave to write it and it needs courage to read it, but the benefits are enormous. Michael Mayne belongs to the great priest-writers. He takes on the issues of mortality, both in religion and literature, and makes us all discover what pain has taught him. It is a wonderful achievement.’Ronald Blythe