{"product_id":"the-death-suite","title":"The Death Suite","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eAfter admission to Southampton General Hospital, aged 64, on 17 Sept 2022 for sepsis, explorations of the underlying issue indicated cancer of the bowel and liver, with a likelihood that it had also spread to the lungs.  That seemed to point in just one direction: I found myself thinking about death, and jotting down jestingly macabre thoughts. Meantime, I was feeling fit enough to roam the hospital corridors, taking the accompanying photographs of ‘hospital still life’. Some of the poems mention my immediate family: mother Shirley, unmatchable wife Steph, children Ursula, Kim and Greg, and my six grandchildren - all wonderfully supportive, along with my brothers and scores of artist friends. It proved, incidentally, very easy to outlive the prime ministership of Liz Truss (‘I wonder’). I was moved around the hospital a fair amount, but spent a dozen days in Bay D of Ward D8 - Gastro Hepatology - and that’s where I wrote most of these poems (the staff in D8 were great, incidentally). I lost two stone between the opening and closing photographs: the last followed on from bowel surgery (‘Notice’), after which I was moved, initially to my own room for four days due to the ward I came from having had a covid alert (as per ‘For four days now’) then onto a post-surgical ward, where the last few poems were written in less luxury. I returned home on 11 October.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003ePOSTSCRIPT OCTOBER 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSomewhat surprisingly, I am still alive after three operations and three rounds of chemotherapy, though the diagnosis remains terminal. I have continued to track my ‘cancer journey’ through photo-poems, making this ‘The Death Suite 1 - The Efficient Life’ in a sequence of twelve potential volumes to date.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e--\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eEdited and Published by FAD Magazine \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eDesign by Pritpal Ajimal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eText © Paul Carey-Kent \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublication © 2026 WXY LTD\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eEdition 1\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eALL RIGHTS RESERVED\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eNo part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the author’s written permission.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrinted in the UK\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eISBN is 978-1-0369-7568-5\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FAD SHOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67727592325290,"sku":null,"price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0558\/3716\/3690\/files\/pauls-death-suite--001.jpg?v=1792690321","url":"https:\/\/shop.fadbazaar.art\/products\/the-death-suite","provider":"FAD SHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}