Cads’ ads
Blog follower Simon Irons, whose last comment on a post was very bracing, is keeping watch over the ASA site to see what happens in the case of Liverpool’s independent funeral directors vs the Fairways Partnership. I expect Fairways will get off — they employ very good lawyers. But win or lose, the complainants ought […]
HealthTalkOnline
I’ve just stumbled on the best website in Britain and can’t believe it’s taken me til now. It is run by excellent people and is incredibly informative. It also tells it as it is. Where end of life issues are concerned there’s not nearly as much of this about as there needs to be. This site […]
Earth to Earth
I flew down the M5 last night to attend a glittering film premiere at Arnos Vale. That’s Arnos as in the Lancastrian ‘tha knows’, it doesn’t rhyme with thermos, I heard a bit of that from foreigners who’d come up from Bath. Sorry, no idea who Arno was. Correctly it should be Arno’s. Enough quibbling. […]
Saving the people’s crem from the people’s undertaker
Things are at last hotting up in Burton upon Trent, where the local council and the borough council, joint owners of nearby Bretby crematorium, are considering a sell-out to Midlands Co-op for around £8 million. Local undertakers are rubbing their hands with glee. The Co-op is the most gleeful, of course. Other fans of the […]
Coffin price war on eBay?
Coffins have been coming up for sale on eBay from time to time for a few years, but not in a dependable flow. That may be about to change. Carl Marlow’s Coffin Company has a nice selection at keen prices and I guess he’s in there to stay. You can always tell which is a Carl […]
Roundup
The last ten days or so in tweets. I only tweet good stuff, remember — all the best death stories from around the world. These are all worth checking out. DIY suicide causes horrible death, claims EXIT. Time to legalise? http://bit.ly/ffDoI1 Online site in memo of Stephen Ross – http://bit.ly/hxUArO Contains this irresistible invite: Click here to contact […]
Sceptr’d loony bin?
Some invective from this week’s Spectator. It is by Florence King. Being English-American can be depressing. For years I thought about giving up my American citizenship and becoming a Brit to get my blood and my nationality lined up without the interference of a hyphen, but then something made me change my mind with a […]
There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so
I don’t know where you stand on literary criticism. I’ve never been a fan, largely because I don’t understand it. Many years ago I taught for a while, and I was charged with showing fifteen year-olds how to back-seat drive Shakespeare and other quite good writers. Despairing of my teaching methods, my students would resort […]
Shouldering responsibility
You will have your own feelings about a coffin being carried on shoulders of undertakers. It unsettles me. I don’t like to see those big men in black macs in such a close relationship with the body. It wouldn’t do for any of mine. I don’t want men I’ve never met carrying anyone of mine. […]
Music: consolation for life
If you didn’t catch the BBC Radio 4 programme Soul Music last week, you can still hear it on Listen Again. It’s worth it. Soul Music is a long-running series which just seems to get better and better. The format is simple: snippets of interviews with all sorts of people interwoven with the chosen piece […]
