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The Enduring Melody

Author:	Michael Mayne
Published By:	Darton, Longman and Todd (London)
Pages:	257
Price:	£10.95
ISBN:	0 232 52687 7

Reviewed by Colin Selby.

This book is a ‘must read’ for all who live as pastors and carers or are facing their own fight with cancer. I found it hard to put down.

Michael Mayne is Dean Emeritus of Westminster and the former Head of Religious Programmes (Radio) at the BBC. The book is easy to understand and is enhanced by a rich background of a study of theology, literature and music and an interest in natural history. The Enduring Melody of the title is the plainsong of the monasteries which Michael Mayne imaginatively relates to the harmony generated by each human life and particularly to his own life.

Since retiring, Michael has struggled with ME and latterly with oral cancer. The book begins with two short sections. One is a reflection on his journey into a deeper relationship with God, “knowing at the deepest level that I am his, loved beyond my imagining and held by his grace.”  The second is a short essay on the meaning and experience of ageing.

But the main part of the book takes the form of a diary of Michael’s diagnosis, surgery and recovery from a cancer that has now returned. It is a movingly honest account as Michael takes us with him on his journeys in the “country of cancer.” It is sharply focused by enduring pain and discomfort and the expectation of death, and contains some reflections, among other things, on the nature of God, the person and work of Jesus and the need for awe and wonder. This book is easy to read, but not an easy read.