A Glimpse of Eternal Snows

When Jane Wilson-Howarth's son, David, was diagnosed with serious medical problems, the family faced the tough decision of whether to stay in England, or return to their home at the time, in remote Nepal. This is a moving story of this mother's determination to give her child the best possible chance of enjoying life.

As I was flying across the Atlantic last week to Seattle, to a conference, I was transported to Nepal by this excellent, brilliantly compulsive, emotional book about
David.

I admire the bravery that Jane and Simon exhibited to fight the NHS system and give David the best life ever. Every Doctor or health care worker should read it ...every medical student should discuss it in their ethics teaching.
Dr Jane Dunbar - Dr Jane Dunbar

Jane Wilson-Howarth is familiar to many readers for her previous witty and informative guides to travel health, as well as a very readable and authoritative guide to the health of child travellers.

In this book, her writing has moved to a new level. In it she movingly chronicles the short but much loved life of her son David who was born with a variety of congenital problems resulting in a spate of consultations and investigations. Janes account of the problems of being the parent of a sick child, of being a doctor and the problems of communicating with Davids doctors on both these levels provides a stark lesson for all health professionals to pay as much heed to the need to communicate effectively with our patients and their relatives and meet their emotional needs as we pay to the clinical aspects of our work.

Eventually Jane and her husband Simon made what appeared to be the radical decision to take their son away from the world of scientific medicine where he was regarded as an interesting case and to return with him to Nepal where Simon was working on a water project. Janes deep love of Nepal emerges clearly from the book, but she writes realistically about the problems and frustrations of living and working there. Her accounts of daily life with her family in a remote part of Nepal and the treks which they undertook in the mountains are insightful and a delight to read. She writes frankly of the relationship between herself, her husband, their baby and his older brother is a way that will bring flashes of recognition and empathy and which cannot fail to move the emotions and raise the spirits of readers.

When I received this book for review I was reading a novel by a renowned writer but I have still not finished that novel, having been completely seduced from it by Janes delightful, moving and fascinating book which appealed to me as a parent, as a doctor and as a lover of Nepal and its people. I felt privileged to be allowed to share the joy, sorrow, frustrations and achievements of Jane and her family during their physical and emotional journey. - Dr Mike Townend

Jane Wilson-Howarth has written an extremely moving and entertaining account of living in Nepal with her family. Anyone who has ever visited Nepal will instantly recognise the author's excellent and often highly humorous portrayal of this fascinating country with its unique culture and people.
This book is enjoyable to read and contains a wealth of interesting detail. As well as being intensely personal, concerning the life of her son, David, the work also offers a window into both another world, far removed from the one that most of us live in, and a view into the life of an ordinary family undergoing an extraordinary journey. The book prompts interesting thoughts about our (the West's) treatment of 'disability' but always remains readable in its approach.
I would recommend this excellently written and engaging book to anyone. - Julie Cozens

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