Unexpected Lessons in Love is one of them: as though Bernadine Bishop posed herself a series of questions concerning love, illness, maternity and friendship, then composed this story in order to answer them.
They develop a habit of talking in the middle of the night -- about paternal love, illness, desertion, trust.
Two eternal stories – sexual love and illness – are captivating.
It has none of the pathos or narrative momentum of major life events like love, loss, illness and grief.
The basement apartment, makeshift desk and tuna casserole were a bit much, but she made as persuasive a case as possible that certain experiences falling in love, childrearing, illness, the work inherent in a long marriage transcend wealth and class.
The film, based on the Stephen Greenhorn musical play first performed by Dundee Rep in 2007, weaves 13 songs by the Proclaimers into a melodrama about love, upheaval, illness and betrayal in a Scottish family.
As Robinson foresees his future, he describes the key points of his life: a move to Berlin, work, his first serious relationship, fatherhood, a second chance of love, loss, illness and death.
I do not think deciding to end your life should be easy, but it should not cause so much pain and difficulty to you or those who love you, illness is painful and degrading enough, we don't need finding a solution to be as unbearable and undignified as this.
He strove to bring wit and cleverness to what often seemed a melodramatic formula of failed love, insidious illness and, always, the ever-dangling hope that all questions might be answered in the next episode, said Anthony Heilbut, who is researching soap operas as part of a book he is writing.
Plus three writers I came across at the literary festival in Franschhoek, South Africa – Ivan Vladislavic's tremendous 101 Detectives (And Other Stories £10), Beverly Rycroft's incisive, moving poems about love and illness, Missing (Modjaji Books £15.95) and everything by Thando Mgqolozana, who impressed me by saying he was opting out of literary festivals altogether.
Once you don't have time to ponder the big questions of love, death, illness, childhood or life goals over a glass of wine, what questions become essential for survival?
