British writer and playwright Joe Hammond, "who wrote movingly about his diagnosis with motor neurone disease (MND) and his own mortality," died November 30, the Guardian reported. He was 50. Hammond "became famous in 2018 when he wrote for the Guardian about writing 33 cards for his two young sons, Tom and Jimmy, for the birthdays he would not live to see."
His memoir, A Short History of Falling: Everything I Observed About Love Whilst Dying, was published this year and "was praised widely for its humor and calmness," the Guardian wrote, adding that days before his death, he finished writing an article about the end of his life.
Describing Hammond as a remarkable person, Helen Garnons-Williams, his editor at HarperCollins, said: "His memoir is a lasting legacy: a book of consolation, wisdom, and--most astonishingly--wonder. Above all, it's a celebration of love. Joe was hugely loved, and will be hugely missed."
The Bookseller noted that as a playwright, Hammond "took part in the Royal Court Studio Writers' Group in 2012, having previously been mentored by the theatre and BBC. His debut London production Where the Mangrove Grows played at Theatre503 in 2012 and was later published by Bloomsbury."
Hammond's agent, Will Francis, observed: "Joe's mind only seemed to become sharper as his disease progressed. He finished writing another extraordinary piece--a dispatch from the very end of life--just a few days ago. I hope Gill, Tom and Jimmy will draw comfort from the book he left, which is full of both his wit and his love for them. He was a deeply original writer who used his own mortality as a lens, to see familiar things anew."