A Passion for Living

by Alexander Stobbs (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.25

  Alex Stobbs is determined to make every day count. Despite suffering from cystic fibrosis and enduring a gruelling regime of drugs and treatment, he has already achieved more in his nineteen years than many do in a lifetime. A musical prodigy, he was the subject of the Bafta-nominated documentary, A Boy Called Alex, and millions watched as he achieved his dream - to conduct the Bach Magnificat.Now at university, Alex is preparing for his next challenge: to conduct the three-hour-long St Matthew Passion. Struggling to balance university life with the demands of constant rehearsals, and hospitalised in the last few weeks before the performance, Alex remains determined to pull off the greatest performance of his life. Introduced by his mother, Suzanne, this is a memoir of remarkable humour and energy, which shows that it is not Alex's illness that makes him extraordinary, but his determination to achieve his dreams in spite of it.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $3.25

  Our lives are precious. Never more so than for 19-year-old Alexander Stobbs who has been a cystic fibrosis sufferer from birth. For him, each day could be his last. But as he says in the BAFTA-nominated documentary -- A Boy Called Alex -- 'you can't do stuff if you're afraid'.A truly inspiring story of a young musician determined to live his dreams, Alex takes us on his journey to survive a daily round of drugs and treatments as he also prepares for his yearning ambition to conduct Bach's three-hour-long St Matthew Passion. Everything we take for granted is a struggle for Alex -- eating, sleeping, even breathing. His determination to live life to the full, constantly striving for perfection in his musical performance, is set against the exhausting every day rigours of medication and treatment simply to keep him alive. Yet he has already achieved some extraordinary goals. An Eton scholar, he has now won a further music scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. Introduced here by his mother Suzanne, Alex's account of living with no certainty about his future is a spur to all of us to make every day count.

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $12.17

  Alex Stobbs is determined to make every day count. Despite suffering from cystic fibrosis and enduring a gruelling regime of drugs and treatment, he has already achieved more in his nineteen years than many do in a lifetime. A musical prodigy, he was the subject of the Bafta-nominated documentary, A Boy Called Alex, and millions watched as he achieved his dream - to conduct the Bach Magnificat.Now at university, Alex is preparing for his next challenge: to conduct the three-hour-long St Matthew Passion. Struggling to balance university life with the demands of constant rehearsals, and hospitalised in the last few weeks before the performance, Alex remains determined to pull off the greatest performance of his life. Introduced by his mother, Suzanne, this is a memoir of remarkable humour and energy, which shows that it is not Alex's illness that makes him extraordinary, but his determination to achieve his dreams in spite of it.