Till I End My Song

1957

Special Collections DA690 L825 GD98. Reproduced by permission of the Robert Gibbings Estate and the Heather Chalcroft Literary Agency

London: J.M. Dent & Sons

In 1955 Robert Gibbings and Patience Empson bought Footbridge Cottage in Long Wittenham, a village beside the Thames River. It was here that Till I End My Song was written. During this time he suffered from intense lower back pain which made it difficult for him to sit and engrave or write. Despite mixing pain medication with gin, nothing seemed to alleviate the situation. On the 2nd January 1958 Gibbings was diagnosed with bowel cancer and underwent surgery. On the 19th January he died from heart failure.