Peter Medawar was a medical researcher who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for work which was key to the development of transplant surgery. In 1969, aged 54, he suffered a debilitating stroke which might have put an end to his career. Instead he continued for another 18 years despite two further strokes in 1980 and 1985 which further disabled him. This book is a memoir by his wife of 50 years, written some years after his death. Her intention was both to celebrate the man and their relationship. The title comes from a remark of his to someone who asked how he managed to get pleasure from life after his stroke - "I have a very decided preference for remaining alive."

Given the intentions of the author, this slight book is less about her and more about her husband and the life they led together, although she does offer some insight into her own background - which was somewhat more privileged than that of her husband. This contrast, remarked on in a number of places throughout the book, is one of the things that makes this book very much of its time - or that of its author - and occasionally jarring for the modern reader, or at least this particular reader. (The same can be said to a lesser extent for one of Medawar's own collections, "The Threat and the Glory", which I have yet to review.)

Jean Medawar is often troubled by the trials and tribulations of their life and the privations she perceives they must endure. Whilst those which relate to her husband's illness and final years of life are very real and well-described, others seem trivial to modern eyes - trouble with the au pairs, the servants, or department stores who deliver the wrong furniture. Her perception of Peter's background as somehow humble is striking given that he attended one of England's more prestigious public (that is, fee-paying) secondary schools before going to university at Oxford.

So this is a historical portrait, and an effective one, giving personal insight into an aspect of women's history as well as the history of medical research and academic life in mid-20th century Britain. As well, it is a portait of an individual - her husband - very different from any other we are likely to read. That personal perspective means that the book is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure, the latter because of what is sometimes left unsaid.

Overall, a book of interest as a memoir in itself and to those interested in its subjects, of an individual and a profession during a time of great change. ( )