A Landscape of Grief by Jenny Hawke

Moving and beautiful book in which the author shares her own journey following her husband's diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease and subsequent death; written for those who are grieving 

A Landscape of Grief - Forty Reflections for the Journey
By Jenny Hawke
Darton, Longman and Todd 
ISBN: 978-1 915412-23-2
Reviewed by Sue Clements-Jewery 

This is a beautiful little book. At first glance it looks like a children’s story picture book, almost square (16x 17cm) with a hard cover, the text interleaved by the authors’s own (very beautiful) watercolour illustrations.

Jenny Hawke is both a writer and a watercolour artist. I was interested to discover that she is the daughter of the late Eddie Askew, director of the The Leprosy Mission for many years and well known in the East Midlands and beyond, and that she had collaborated with her father in illustrating several of his publications as well as publishing in her own right.

In A Landscape of Grief the author shares her own journey following her husband Peter’s diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease, subsequent decline over three years, and death.

The brief introduction gives the author’s reasons for writing - the radical changes which followed Peter’s diagnosis, all the losses it entailed, her own loss of and rediscovery of faith, and some comments about how to use the book for those in a ‘new landscape’ with unfamiliar roads -’a story of honest raw emotion’ to be journeyed with slowly.

Part 1 entitled ‘This is our story’ contains five short chapters describing the journey from Peter’s diagnosis to his moving into a hospice, each illustrated by watercolour landscape pictures.

Part 2 holds the ‘Forty reflections’ of the subtitle. Many of these are based on entries the author made in her journal over a seven year period. Most of these are brief enough (1-1.5pages) to be read easily by those on their own journey through bereavement, and again are accompanied by watercolour illustrations in a range of deep colours (purples, greens) and towards the end, some lighter ones.

I found this book very moving, I liked the immediacy with which Jenny Hawke talks out of her own pain directly to the reader as if writing directly for her/him, emphasising that there is no right way to grieve, and giving lots of permission and encouragement to those on the journey.

This book is written for those who are grieving. Ministers and those supporting people experiencing loss will find this a valuable resource.

 

Sue Clements-Jewery offers Pastoral Supervision and previously worked as a counsellor