Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Claire Gilbert

A meditation on suffering, joy and community as the author writes beautifully and honestly about journey through cancer and pioneering steam cell replacement treatment

Miles to Go Before I Sleep
By Claire Gilbert
Hodder Faith
ISBN No: 9781529359732
Reveiwed by: Moira Kleissner

Claire Gilbert is a research Fellow at Kings College London and has been a national expert on the ethics of medical research. She is also Director of the Westminster Abbey Institute. This is a book that will have you laughing and crying as you join Claire on her brave journey through cancer and pioneering steam cell replacement treatment, with the possibility of increasing her life from weeks to years.

When she was 54, Claire was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Others in her close family had died of cancer so you can guess her feelings when she was diagnosed as she embarked on pioneering treatment at Guy’s in London.

This is no super-spiritual book or a “triumph over adversity” story, nor is it a gloss of positivity under adversity, but is searingly honest. It is a meditation on suffering, joy and community, often reflecting her knowledge of Julian of Norwich upon which one of her doctorates was based.

It takes the form of letters to her friends and relations whom she calls “Beloved Readers,” with the theme “hope, death and learning to live.” You walk with her along this journey with its ups and downs; pain and doubt; its hilarious incidents which will make you laugh out loud; see her making new friends; her dependence on God and her doubt; her partner’s support and love, as they negotiate her treatment up until the start of Covid. She doesn’t flinch from the difficult times that she has experienced, nor the decisions that have had to be made about her future.

It is beautifully written and crafted by someone who knows how to use English well. You are taken on a journey with Claire, a journey shot through with a very deep faith in God that doesn’t find it’s source in glib statements nor false positivity. I found that as a book by a Christian author, its honesty was so refreshing.

This is one of the best Christian biographies that I have read for a long time.

Moira Kleissner is a retired Primary Deputy Head, storyteller, trainer and minister’s wife

Baptist Times, 03/03/2023

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