Cliffs of Despair: A Journey to Suicide's Edge

by Tom Hunt

Beachy Head is a bit of quintessential England–a seaside promontory where green pastures roll to the edge of chalk cliffs, a place of sheep and wind and ineffable beauty. But it is also a major landmark on the map of self-inflicted death. Since 1965, some five hundred people have ended their lives by jumping or driving or simply walking off the 535-foot cliffs, making Beachy Head one of the most popular suicide spots in the world. And still they come, every week another one or two–the young and the old, the terminally ill and the vigorously healthy, the bereft, the insane, the despairing. Why here? Why so many? One chilly English spring, American writer and teacher Tom Hunt left his home and family and journeyed to this bucolic landscape to find out.
In a narrative that seamlessly weaves together personal memoir, history, travelogue, and investigative journalism, Hunt recounts a season of disturbing revelations (including that Princess Diana allegedly came here intending to jump). Still reeling from a suicide in his own family, Hunt arrives in England obsessed with Beachy Head’s grisly mystique, yet utterly unsure of what he would discover.
Gradually, with typical English reserve, the people who haunt this extraordinary place release their secrets. Servers in the local tavern–known among residents as the Last Stop Pub–whisper about their encounters with hollow-eyed men and women in their final hours. The celebrated local witch asserts his belief that the place was once used for human sacrifice. The kindly coroner provides access to suicide notes, photographs, and the Sudden Death file. “It’s a very cold solution,” confides a wheelchair-bound ex-hippie who miraculously survived his own jump.
In the course of wrenching interviews with bereft family members, watchful taxi drivers, and brave rescue workers, it dawns on Hunt that in each of us is a will to die every bit as tenacious and unyielding as the desire to live–and that Beachy Head stiffens and heightens this death wish. It’s a stage that all but begs to be leapt from. A work of terrible sadness and harrowing revelations, Cliffs of Despair is the account of an unforgettable journey to a place where beauty and death collide.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mental Health, Psychology

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by the concept of this book, and couldn't wait to read it. The author, Tom Hunt, becomes aware of cliffs in a quaint spot in England - Beachy Head - which is notorious for suicidal jumps. Since 1965, some 500 people have ended their lives by jumping off the cliffs, making it one of the most popular suicide spots in the world. Hunt becomes obsessed with the idea of suicide - for various reasons - and decides to research how the suicidal presence of the cliffs has affected the community that surrounds them. Although Hunt takes the opportunity to discuss his own personal experiences with suicide, and also offers some detailed accounts of the personal experiences of some of residents of Beachy Head, I found the book's content lacking in depth. A relatively quick and interesting read, although superficial and slightly disappointing.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every year approximately twenty people jump, run, fall, and crawl to their deaths at Beachy Head, East Sussex, England. It is so prevalent that the locals such as cab drivers, and those who work at the nearby bar are all on high alert for potential jumpers. At the top of Beachy Head is a phone to reach the Good Samaritans who are on call twenty four hours a day to talk potential jumpers out of harming themselves. The author's desire to examine the phenomenon of Beachy Head is driven in part by his own brother in law's suicide. This book is a fascinating if somewhat morbid look at suicide. Although locals are reluctant to talk about the grisly history of the area the author was able to interview many different people including the coroner, a man who survived his fall, and a grieving family left behind. All provide clues into the mindset of an extremely distraught individual who is able to go overcome inborn biological programming of self preservation in order to take their own life. Most affecting are the stories of people who decide to end their lives while taking their children over the edge with them. Since this book was written many more people have decided to end their lives at Beachy Head including a couple whose young son had recently passed away and they jumped with his body between them. Here is an updated article by the author of the book. It was nice to read that he has kept in touch and forged a relationship with Peter Cooper, a man who he interviewed in the book about his son's death at Beachy Head. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/200... Also here is a great you tube video showing Beachy Head and just how devastating a fall would be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WiNkx... Anyone interested in human psychology will find a lot to absorb in this tragic tale of Beachy Head.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

TW: Suicide Ideation

I live near the George Washington Bridge, a popular suicide site in the vein of the titular cliffs, and mentioned in the book Golden Gate Bridge. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I was hoping though for maybe some kind of insight in the power places have when it comes to people who have suicidal feelings. I took nothing away from this book and not in an existential way where it may have been the point, I'm just not sure it ever really came together.

Hunt's prose was a little bothersome. I'm not a fan of that kind of flowery language but it felt especially out of place dealing with the subject matter. In the early chapters, where the locals were reluctant to talk to Hunt, I really sympathized with them. He came off like a tourist who had heard third and fourth hand accounts of the place, rather than someone with a genuine interest in them. And I know at the heart of the book, that wasn't the case given his own loss, but he seemed more interested in his own prose than the depths of the subject matter.

I really wanted to like it, especially in the later parts of the book, it never came together for me. I've contemplated and attempted suicide. I suppose I was hoping to hear from people that might illuminate my own feelings in those horrible moments, and what it's like to still be alive after going through that. What I've learned elsewhere is that our moments are our own.

Seeing that this was based on an essay, I wonder if the short form would have hit clearer end points.

[Lee Dewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I visited Eastbourne a few months ago and was told about Beachy Head. It intrigued me and so I purchased the book. I found it extremely interesting, informative and well written. There is so much in this book. I really enjoyed reading it. It touches the subject matter on so many levels.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

i haven't finished this book yet, but so far i'm loving it. maybe i'm a little morbid, since it's about suicide and death, but hunt is an interesting narrator and this memoir-esque story of his venture to london to research the suicides at the beachy head cliffs (the third most popular suicide site in the world behind some big bridge in japan and the golden gate bridge in san fran) is pretty gripping. a few chapters in, you realize that this endeavor is more than just an outsider's curiousity; it seems to me that hunt is at beachy head fascinated by these suicides because he himself is exploring his own propensity for suicide. i love the way that he writes this memoir without leaving the reader feeling voyeuristic- it's not all about him, day in and day out. there is an external story, but his personal experience is interwoven throughout his story-telling. he gets pretty deep and philosophical about life and death, and our reactions to the phenomenon of each.. and i am just eating it up.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half of this book much more than the second half. The author's schizophrenic brother-in-law commits suicide, which leads Tom Hunt to an infamous place for suicides, Beachy Head, in England. His encounters with the local people in the area was very interesting. In the second half of the book Hunt writes more about the suicides and I thought it dragged on a little too long. Although I did find his conversation with a man who unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide to be very thought provoking.

[ida · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

I first became aware of the fatal attraction of Beachy Head a couple of years ago while randomly browsing The Guardian's website. Earlier this week I came across this book on Google Books and decided to give it a read.

While the way this book was written did my head in from time to time, I realize that's hardly the most important aspect of this book. This touches a very important topic in a delicate and sensitive way all while being an interesting read.

[Gena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to England and was so obsessed with Beachy Head and then I found this book so I had to read it. Dark topic but very interesting.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to throw myself over a cliff after reading this book. BORING!

[John Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as research for a play about suicide. Illuminating in part for a case study of a man who survived a suicide attempt.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting view of a place and how it is seen by others.

[Armatstorage]

Fascinating and informative. Sad and disconcerting at time, but a good read.

[Helen Geng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read January 2020