Artist and writer Marion Coutts talks about her powerful and moving account of the last 18 months of life of her husband, the art critic Tom Lubbock. Lubbock was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2008. The tumour was located in an area of the brain that controlled speech and language and would eventually rob him of the ability to speak. The Iceberg tells how Coutts, Lubbock and their young son fought to keep their family together amid feelings of fury, selfishness, grief, indignity and impotence.  It charts how even as Lubbock’s speech was failing him, the language of their young son was developing.

Coutts is a lecturer in fine art at Goldsmiths College. She wrote the introduction to Lubbock’s memoir, Until Further Notice, I am Alive.