The Madness of Grief

Critics Review

• Beautiful, honest and massively comforting

  DAWN FRENCH

• Immensely moving and disarmingly witty

  NIGELLA LAWSON

• Will strike a chord with anyone who has grieved . . . shines with the sort of wry, self-analytical wisdom you might expect from Coles. Full of resonating reflections, ones that urge us all to be kinder, to love more strongly

  INDEPENDENT

• Such a moving, tough, funny, raw, honest read. The beautiful articulation of Richard’s grief will be a comfort to so many

  MATT HAIG

• Captures brilliantly, beautifully, bravely the comedy as well as the tragedy of bereavement . . . simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking, painful and strangely comforting as it confronts the reality of what happens to us all in the end

  THE TIMES

• Beautifully written, moving and gut-wrenching, but also at times very funny, each smile and laugh a candle in the dark

  IAN RANKIN

• An astonishingly brave, bold and honest book about the tragedy – and unexpected comedy – of bereavement. Such a harrowing, hopeful and comforting book. If I could prescribe Richard Coles, I’d administer him stat to us all

  Dr Rachel Clarke, author of DEAR LIFE

• This is not a self-help book on how to cope with death and loss, it is an honest, raw and personal account of a man’s descent into the Madness of Grief. Richard provides a frank account of the trials and tribulations he endured during the weeks between the death and the funeral of the man he loved. Funny, sad, touching and thought provoking, it reminds us that grief has no normality, no time limit and most importantly, no rules

  PROFESSOR DAME SUE BLACK, author of ALL THAT REMAINS

• Bold, intimate writing . . . THE MADNESS OF GRIEF is not a manual for the bereaved, but as a vivid account of how it feels when the world suddenly falls away, it performs another kind of service

  THE SUNDAY TIMES

• Deeply moving . . . has an immediacy that is not born of long reflection and it is all the better for it

  FINANCIAL TIMES

• Heartbreakingly sad and searingly honest . . . For those who find themselves bereaved, this book is sure to help

  DAILY MIRROR

• You don’t need to be religious to find comfort in this book. Anybody who has experienced a similar complex grief will relate to many of Coles’s anecdotes

  THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

• In this memoir, Coles shares his truth, stays kind, and, when possible, brings a smile . . . By reflecting the hurts of others’ losses with such beauty and integrity, he confirms that it is his open humanity that is priestly. It gives me yet another reason to admire him

  CHURCH TIMES

• An honest book, and a brave one

  THE OLDIE

• Moving and candid, this book will resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one, or has had to cope with someone they love whom they just cannot help

  I NEWSPAPER

• Although not a self-help book, the homilies, experience and catharsis within creates invaluable solace. It will resonate for the myriad struggling with grief wrought by the pandemic

  THE QUIETUS

• Beautifully written, raw and deeply personal . . . A revealing and often funny insight into love and loss

  ATTITUDE

• This brief, wise, frank book deals with the surreal mundanity of bereavement

  THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Books of the Summer

• His reading is pitch-perfect . . . creating an aural kaleidoscope. It is, at heart, a meditation on the nature of loss and one that is as strangely comforting as it is wrenching and painful

  FINANCIAL TIMES, Audio Books review round up

• A WORTHY heir to C. S. Lewis’s ‘A Grief Observed’… To be in Coles’s company is always uplifting, even when he’s writing about unbearable sadness and loss.

  DAILY MAIL, Best Books of 2021