The Silly Thing is an account of a woman's acceptance of and struggle with living and dying with a grade 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the brain. It is told from the perspective of her daughter, Esther Ramsay-Jones, a psychotherapist and academic. The book discusses the fears that people might have about dying and specifically about brain cancer: for the author's mother, the tumour affected her speech and, as an English teacher, whose life had so intimately been tied up with language the fear of language loss was at times unbearable. From a psychotherapeutic point of view, the book will explore what it means to be given a terminal diagnosis and what kinds of psychological responses the 'patient' and family members might have. It will touch on notions of family systems theory, and the roles people might then take up as reaction to the news. The author also looks at 'difficult conversations' in palliative care - what might help/what might hinder - and the value of listening skills, capacity for attunement and containment, in staff teams and in the medical profession at large. Though the main focus in this book is her mother's experience, vignettes from the lived experience of practising palliative psychotherapy will be woven into the narrative to highlight the value of talking and sharing fears, anger, confusion, loves and gratitude with those who are dying.

Informed by the author's work in dementia care and palliative care as a psychodynamic psychotherapist, Holding Time contributes to an increasing recognition of the importance and value of relationship-centred care in this field. Most of the book is written ethnographically and unfolds as a narrative. It also includes the real words of staff and residents from the care homes in which she conducted observations. Holding Time explores how the relational investment in care is vital alongside a technical one. The book does this by detailing the micro-interactions of everyday care and concern and play before moving out on to a wider, organisational and macro stage. It addresses our fears about dependency on a societal level, and attempts to challenge the foregrounding of the independent, rational individual over all other experiences. The author's contribution is particular to the UK dementia care home setting, and offers a predominantly psychoanalytic take. It is a contemporary exploration of the dementia care field, and contributes to the general movement to improve care of those living (and working) with dementia.