dumbfoundry

Award-winning playwright, novelist and poet Julia Darling has lost a battle against cancer at the age of 48.

Ms Darling, a mother of two, was a winner of the prestigious Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award. She died of breast cancer on Wednesday.

Ms Darling, of Newcastle, was best known for her Booker Prize-longlisted novel The Taxi Driver's Daughter.

In recent years she has run workshops for GPs and hospital staff about using poetry to cope with illness. [...]

I hate cancer. It's taken me away from such life. Tonight I'd like to strangle it the way that it is doing to me but I must look at the dark horizon of chimneys out of the window and imagine what is beyond. But count your blessings - a. No pain unless I try and dance the hokey cokey. b. fantastic cusine cooked by my mother. c. No family arguments. d. No fear. e. Cornflakes and milk. f. Trina's ice cream. g. my new NHS bath seat and squashy mattress. h. You only have to do death once.

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