Jeremy Clarke made his girlfriend pregnant, resigned from his job as a refuse collector, resigned his church membership, sold his house, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then came back altered. Now the author of the 'Low Life' column in the Spectator, Clarke tells his story.
Jeremy Clarke was first diagnosed with cancer in 2013. These columns cover the period from that shock diagnosis up until his death in May 2023. He chronicled his battle with the disease with humour and defiance, but never self-pity. He also met Catriona Olding in 2013. They would fall in love and eventually marry shortly before his death. He recounts this journey with tenderness and honesty. His columns cover life in Devon and then France, as well as drinking and occasional drug taking, his love of literature, and life itself, and are imbued with bathos, insight, and a finely honed sense of the absurd.