A Smell of Burning
by Colin Grant, Jonathan Cape, £16.99.
Colin Grant, a doctor who works as a radio producer for the BBC, was prompted to write this book, subtitled “The Story of Epilepsy”, because his brother Christopher was an epileptic. Alongside the history of epilepsy, Grant tells the tragic story of Christopher, who died, aged 39, after a fit, which was categorised as SUDEP (sudden unexplained death in epilepsy). Both brothers come from a Jamaican background and it was Grant’s poignant task, traditional to his culture, to dress his brother’s body for burial.
