Sarah Perry | Death of an Ordinary Man
Fri 24 Apr 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm
When David Perry died at home just nine days after a cancer diagnosis, his daughter-in-law Sarah Perry came to understand, with devastating clarity, that “there are no ordinary lives.” In Death of an Ordinary Man, the award-winning, Booker-longlisted and internationally bestselling novelist turns her luminous attention to the raw, minute-by-minute reality of dying – what happens to the body and spirit as death approaches, and what it means to care for someone you love at the end of their life.
As David’s illness outstrips the speed of the NHS and social care system, Sarah and her husband find themselves doing the nursing, witnessing everything: panic, tenderness, disorientation, exhaustion, and unexpected moments of light. Part reportage, part memoir, and part urgent reflection on the structural conditions of dying in the UK, this is a profoundly moving testament to one man’s life and to the courage and intimacy of caregiving. Join Sarah Perry for a rare and deeply humane conversation about death, love, and the strange beauty that can accompany the end of life.
Chaired by broadcaster Alex Clark.
Venue: Old Divinity School
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biography
Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Enlightenment, Melmoth, The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood, and the non-fiction Essex Girls. She is a winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year Award and the British Book of the Year Award. Enlightenment was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 and her other work has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Chair Biography
Alex Clark is a broadcaster and journalist, who writes for many publications including the Guardian, the Observer, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is a co-host on the Graham Norton Book Club for Audible and hosts the TLS podcast. She is a professional chairperson and appears all over the UK at Cheltenham, Hay and the Southbank Centre. Alex is a festival Honorary Patron.
