People who met the inevitable with elan unflappability dignity or physical courageWe all have to go sometime so why not go in a manner that reflects well on your entire life With humanity insight and occasional humour author Matt Sturrock has selected from the annals of history an eclectic group of peoplean Alexandrian mathematician a Haitian slave an English philosopher a Vietnamese monkwho met the inevitable with amp233eacutelan unflappability dignity or physical courage. Many of these people lived and died continents and millennia apart. They subscribed to creeds the others in these pages would have found alien and unfathomable. Yet they are thrust together here because of their extraordinary strength of character in the face of annihilation. Their stories are irrefutable proof of the old maxim that living and dying well are ultimately inextricable.