Most of us will have been profoundly affected by cancer, if not in our personal then certainly in our professional lives. Johnson elegantly tells a fascinating chronological tale of cancer; from finding osteosarcoma in dinosaur fossils through to Marie Curie, to the more recent serendipitous discovery of cisplatin and the groundbreaking research being done to outpace cancer in the future. Complicated cell biology terms vaguely remembered from medical school are explained simply in this very readable and measured text.
Through this ‘potted history’ of cancer and its treatments, Johnson weaves his own personal experience, which affects his wife and then his brother. As we all might when faced with a cancer diagnosis, he mulls over their personal risk factors and the evidence for these. He unravels their sobering journey with an unsentimental but touching frankness.
The epilogue explains the jacket sleeve; the words of the title intertwine with the bindweed Convolvulus arvensis. Cancer is a tenacious weed; carefully dissected and subject to chemical attack, only to return and seed stealthily at the next opportunity. For the present moment at least, chaos remains the natural state of matter — any triumph over cancer is temporary.