On the brink

When Georgia Blain died at the age of fifty-one in 2016, the reading public was robbed of a superb prose writer in her prime. Her final and, some consider, best novel, Between a Wolf and a Dog (2016), achieved wide critical acclaim. Shortly after Blain succumbed to brain cancer, that novel went on to win or be shortlisted in a slew of national prizes.

As readers, we are fortunate to have two posthumously published books. The Museum of Words (2017) was a compilation of reflections, part memoir, part essaying of the writing life, written after Blain was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme. Her previous non-fiction title, Births Deaths Marriages (2008), tellingly explored a brother’s schizophrenia and subsequent death, and her father’s swings from charm to abuse – though Blain never wallowed in trauma or self-pity, and was also happy to muse, for example, on the joys of dog ownership. The Museum of Words examined her mother Anne Deveson’s drift into dementia, the illness of her friend Rosie, and her own confrontation with sickness and mortality. As many will know, Deveson died three days after Blain.