Donald Howard was minister of St Peter's Church of England, Sydney, when his wife, Diana, at the age of forty contracted cancer. She was to live a further six years but, he writes, although through faith in Christ 'we were prepared for death, I was ill prepared for grief'. This ill- preparedness, he found, arose from a lack of understanding and two years later he wrote these pages for the help of others. They contain a blend of biblical, pastoral and personal elements and serve to fill a gap on the subject of bereavement. After experience in agriculture, the Royal Australian Air Force and journalism, Donald Howard studied theology at Moore College, Sydney. He then served for many years in the pastoral ministry. After an active preaching ministry since his reitrement in 1992, the author and his wife Nan have become members of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. He has four children and eleven grandchildren from his first marriage and he and Nan have two daughters at the University of Sydney.