Swift Press buys Simon Boas’ Beginner’s Guide to Dying

Swift Press has acquired A Beginner’s Guide to Dying by Simon Boas, described as “a paean to the joy of life”.

Swift publisher Mark Richards acquired world rights directly from the author, and publication is scheduled for 24th October 2024.

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer in his mid-forties, Boas’ articles about his prognosis and the many reasons not to feel gloomy about it went viral, and the countless responses he received encouraged him to try to expand on why “hopping the twig at 46 really isn’t so bad”. A Beginner’s Guide to Dying is the result.

 A Beginner’s Guide to Dying contains lessons on how to live from someone now dying. The publisher added: “Simon considers and collates the things that have given him such a great sense of peace and contentment, how small acts of kindness can offer more meaning than the big achievements, and how cultivating a sense of wonder at the sheer good fortune of being alive can help us through life’s hard moments. And for that reason, it’s only partly about "dying". It is mostly a hymn to the joy and preciousness of life, and why giving death a place can help all of us make even more of it.”

Boas said: “I shall already have hopped the twig by the time this book comes out, but it brings me so much joy to think that my words might benefit other people. And not just those in a similar situation – there really is no right or wrong way to approach the grave – but everyone who might sometimes feel that they have lost touch with what’s really important in life, cluttered as it always is with so many daily worries and commitments. 

“I’m delighted also that this will raise money for palliative care charities, particularly ones which focus on children and on developing countries. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

Richards said: “I read A Beginner’s Guide to Dying with tears running down my cheeks and a broad smile on my face. It is a truly wonderful piece of writing; so warm, so funny and so wise, with lessons for all of us in how to approach life – how to realise how lucky we are, and how we can make the most of our time on this earth. It is clear from the global reaction to Simon’s original pieces for the Jersey Evening Post how much his writing has already meant to people, and it is a true privilege to be publishing the book based on them. Like so many others, I feel lucky to have met Simon – and know that so many more will find his writing inspiring, and even life-changing.