Time to Live

“The beginner's guide to saying goodbye”

Ann Clifford

ISBN: 9781909728684

176 Pages

Published Sep 2017

Christian Life

Paperback £8.99 Kindle £5.99
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For all ‘beginners’ who hope to say goodbye well.

How we leave this life will be our final word to those we love – yet how many of us will be ready?

In Time to Live, Ann Clifford explores the issues around facing death with faith. A gentle and friendly companion, she sensitively encourages conversations around the one certainty we avoid talking about. Written in two parts, Time to Live supportively addresses both the personal and practical elements dying involves, and how we can prepare for them.

Acknowledging the pain and confusion that inevitably accompany loss, Ann looks forward with joy to the Christian hope of life to come. Let her walk you through the process of facing physical pain and emotional distress but also of conquering fear and receiving God’s all-embracing love. Death is only a portal to our future.

Time to Live was short-listed for the Woman Alive magazine Readers’ Choice Award 2018.

  • This is a wonderful book that deals with the important issue of finishing well with great warmth, creativity and clarity. I wholeheartedly recommend you get a copy of this vital book today.

    Gavin Calver, Director of Mission, Evangelical Alliance; Chair of Spring Harvest Planning Group
  • This is a brilliant book. Miroslav Volf and Rio Ferdinand rub shoulders with Martin Luther King and Leonard Cohen as Ann Clifford explores every bit of the landscape of The Thing We Never Talk About. Loads of God-soaked wisdom and spiritual insight about death – the journey, the emotions and the realities. And heaps of practical advice about making a will, caring for those left behind, and dying well. Its the book we all need as we face the death of loved ones and our own mortality.

    Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden & Acting Bishop of London
  • This is a very human book, which deals without flinching with one of the most difficult questions of human life – how do we come to terms with death. Full of compassionate and personal stories, the book offers gentle and whimsical insights into how we can overcome our reluctance to face the inevitable. Ann Clifford is neither unrealistic nor morbid but leads her readers with understanding and empathy through those crucial issues we so often avoid, never forgetting the impact also on our loved ones. She offers help in facing fear without platitudes, and the future with care and planning, while encouraging us in the hope of life beyond the grave. The second half of the book on practicalities is a goldmine of carefully sifted information where legal, financial and institutional issues are unpacked with ease and difficult terms are explained and explored. The result is a book that reaches out and instils confidence in our human significance at every stage of our lives.

    Elaine Storkey, theologian and author of Scars Across Humanity
  • This book flows out of the compassion Ann has for people. She writes about the event we will all face one day in a way that is accessible, innovative, inspiring and practical. Her honesty and deep Christian faith provide a credibility that will attract many readers.

    Elfed Godding, Director of Coalitions and Wales, Evangelical Alliance
  • This is a brave book. It steps into a subject matter that most of us are desperate to ignore, and yet the message of this book is that to ignore it is a mistake. We should prepare and have in place both the practical and the relational legacies that are dear and important to us. Death will knock on every door with absolute certainty. Time to Live will in a strange way inspire us and equip us to face that day. I highly recommend it; it is beautifully written and it will move your heart.

    Laurence Singlehurst, Director of Cell UK, author, Chair of Board of Trustees at Westminster Theological Centre
  • I congratulate Ann on dealing with this subject of death so sensitively and warmly, despite it being such a taboo subject to speak about openly. Time to Live is an excellent resource, with many helpful and practical suggestions and tools on how to deal with the difficult and emotive issue of death.

    Ram Gidoomal CBE, Chair, Stewardship Services and The Lausanne Movement
  • Beautifully written, Ann's book offers us a companion through the huge practical and emotional challenges and opportunities of facing death well. It will enrich and uplift you through what conspires to sap you of life. Please have the courage to read it.

    Maggie Ellis, Executive Coach and Psychotherapist
  • I praise God for giving the vision to Ann Clifford to write this book and I honour Ann for her obedience. To know life is to know death. Thank you, Ann, for having the courage to write about the things most people don't want to talk about. You have put words to feelings and held nothing back. For your honesty, bravery and transparency, I am so grateful. This book is informative and personal and at the same time practical.

    Pastor Chrishanthy Sathiyaraj, Bethany Church Southall, One People Commission, EA Council member
  • Ann Clifford has produced a little gem of a book. Creative and compassionate, poetic and practical. It is full of inspiring stories and Spirit filled wisdom. I wish it had been available when I led a church – I can think of so many people who would have benefited greatly from reading it.

    Dr Fred Drummond, Director of Prayer, Evangelical Alliance
  • Time to Live is extraordinary in its content and unusual in its mix of being beautifully written, life enhancing and yet very, very practical. I have found myself moved to tears, inspired to die well and provided with a practical list of ideas I want to implement right now.

    Reading this book will draw out of you a desire to be brave, to be considerate and to be full of future hope. The desire to be brave will come as you are provoked to look the inevitability of death in the face, to talk about it and to prepare for it. The desire to be considerate to those you love the most will come as you are challenged to ensure all is left in order when you die, from funeral arrangements to financial arrangements. The desire to be a person full of future hope will come as you gain a clear and beautiful vision of heaven.

    Time to Live reframes death entirely, to the extent that after reading it, you might consider that the day you die will actually be the best day of your life so far. With that perspective in mind, you can truly and deeply live.

    Ness Wilson, Team Leader of Open Heaven Church

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