Robert McCrum

Robert McCrum is a distinguished British author, journalist, and literary critic who served as editor-in-chief of Faber and Faber and has been a long-standing literary editor and columnist for the Observer. His book Every Third Thought is a profound, personal meditation on mortality, ageing, and the art of living well in the face of death, inspired in part by McCrum's own experience of suffering a severe stroke in his forties. The title comes from Shakespeare's Prospero, who declares that every third thought shall be my grave, and McCrum uses this as a starting point for an exploration of how awareness of death shapes, enriches, and sometimes haunts our experience of being alive. McCrum has written several acclaimed books, including My Year Off, his memoir of stroke recovery, and Wodehouse: A Life, his biography of P.G. Wodehouse, as well as Globish, a history of English as a world language. His writing is characterised by literary elegance, intellectual curiosity, and a rare combination of personal vulnerability and erudite cultural reference. Every Third Thought draws on philosophy, literature, personal experience, and conversations with others facing mortality to create a book that is both deeply individual and universally relevant. It is available as an audiobook, offering listeners a thoughtful, beautifully written companion for reflecting on the questions that matter most.