On this week’s podcast, Claire Gilbert talks to Gareth Higgins about her book Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Letters on hope, death and learning to live (Hodder & Stoughton). It’s available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the reduced price of £14.99.

After being diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood, Claire Gilbert, who is the founder Director of the Westminster Abbey Institute, began writing to her siblings and a group of close friends about what she was going through.

In a review of the book for the Church Times, Caroline Chartres writes: “This is not a book about dying, but, rather, a book about how facing death enables us truly to live.”

Read an extract from the book here.

This conversation was recorded on Saturday at an online event, “Finding Meaning”, organised by the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. It features occasional strong language.

Other speakers at the event were the journalist and broadcaster Sarah Sands, talking about her book The Interior Silence; Gareth Higgins speaking about his forthcoming book How Not to be Afraid; and Brian McLaren, who spoke about his latest book, Faith After Doubt.

Buy access to a recording of the event here.

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and most other podcast platforms.