Awards
Costa Biography Award
2009 Shortlist
Coda by Simon Gray
Co-published by Granta and Faber and Faber
Coda is a candid account of life following a diagnosis of cancer and a limited life expectancy. Writing during a holiday with his wife in Crete, Gray recalls the scans and consultations that have dominated the previous months while offering portraits of fellow tourists and digressions on everything from lying to the ma?tre d' and concerns about tipping; from crimes of passion to his new-found obsession with obituaries. Despite the bleak prognosis, Simon's dark humour about the encounters with his medical team is as funny as it is heart-rending.
Simon Gray was born in 1936. He was the author of over thirty plays, several novels and eight memoirs, including The Smoking Diaries trilogy and was appointed CBE in 2005 for services to drama and literature. Simon died of a ruptured aneurysm in August 2008.
Judges: "Black humour with the lightest touch."
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