At one point in this book Tom Lubbock regrets that no ""teaching how to die"" is available. It is now, written and demonstrated by him. That someone should have worked his way through to accepting his own death as a part of life with such courage, intelligence and finally success, recording it with such lucidity as he went, is almost incredible and fills one with awe. So does the introduction to his book by Marian Coutts, the wife Tom loved so truly. The experience of reading Until Further Notice, I Am Alive is unforgettable, and profoundly valuable - Diana Athill
This book is going to be read and quoted for centuries, for it is a rare and wonderful (and heart-breaking) thing. Scarcely ever has death been approached with such lucidity, such vivacious interest, such a passionate determination to go on sending letters home from the last borders of life and language - Francis Spufford
Philosophy's big riddles get dramatised here in rich detail. Lubbock does not dwell on physical pain but he tries to track, with awesome stubbornness and lucidity, the gradual disintegration of his own speech patterns ... What gradually came on me as I read his notes and meditations was a sense that behind the witty and complicated man I very slightly knew, there stood a kind of hero of contemplation - Julian Bell, Guardian
I hope that if I am ever diagnosed with a terminal illness I will remember to reread Until Further Notice, I Am Alive. It is, in its tough-minded way, truly joyous - Lynn Barber, Sunday Times
Until Further Notice, I Am Alive is an account of what William Empson called 'the human practice of dying'. And nothing in Lubbock's writing indicates that he did it with any less of the humour and intellectual curiosity that he lived by ... The details are beautifully observed; the big picture is illuminated; the title is well chosen - Alexander Linklater, Observer
If one sought a lesson in how to die, one could hardly do better - Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph
Extraordinary ... It's hard, impossible, to pr cis this magical book: magical not by its author's intent but by what it achieves. He addresses one of the most ancient of philosophical questions - how should a man die? - with emotional assurance, a precise and kindly brutality of judgment, rare in the current rash of death-confessional writing. This is a book in a different class. More; it is a different class of thing - Michael Bywater, Independent
These are thoughts for us all, sooner or later - and this is a book I'll keep with me, as long as I live - Evening Standard
Tom Lubbock's reaction to the loss of words - sporadic at first, then faster and more consistent - was to find the right words to describe it. The result is Until Further Notice ... At the heart of this book is a paradox that intrigued Lubbock as a philosopher: how do you find words to describe their loss? He reached, instinctively, for the language of criticism ... In the end, with the last words he could write he found an unexpected answer to the paradox of this book, and of his life - Charles Darwent, Independent on Sunday
A heart-rending, thrillingly intelligent book ... rich in all manner of wisdom ... Much of the book is written in the fine, elegant but no-nonsense style familiar to anyone who enjoyed his art reviews ... it is one of the best books of the last 300 years about how to die - Kevin Jackson, Literary Review
Quietly devastating ... Dispassionately incisive throughout ... as it falls away, it retains its startling eloquence - Fisun G ner, Metro
These are thoughts for us all, sooner or later - and this is a book I'll keep with me, as long as I live - David Sexton, Scotsman
A remarkable record of his final months, examining the question: how to live with death in sight. Highly recommended - Art
Every once in a while you read a book that completely changes the way you view the world ... With his incredible talent for explanation and analysis, Lubbock guides you through the twists and turns of a terminal condition. In life Lubbock could describe a work of art in such a way that it made you see it a completely new way. Here, he makes death his subject and, true to form, takes you as close as possible to one of the last remaining questions of human existence - Ham & High
Lubbock comes across as a stubbornly congenial humanist, full of happiness at the 'goodness of the world', his friends his wife, his young son ... Rejecting the spiritual or the transcendent, Lubbock binds himself to things, to experience, to every material through his life as a writer, and it is in the critic's constant use of language that he gives the world its shape - April 2012, Art Review
A philosophical memoir... recounted with the same clarity of voice that marked his art writing - Michael Prodger, Books of the Year, Guardian
A moving account of dying, which, through Lubbock's innate grace and intelligence, also doubles as meditation on how to die - Craig Brown, Books of the Year, Mail on Sunday
A sharp and tender meditation on life and art - Katy Guest, Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday
'[This book] faced its author's premature death with full attention and love of life, in a way immeasurably generous to the reader: it shows nothing less than how to die - Candia McWilliam, Books of the Year, Scotsman
