‘Your stories’ invitation 2
NIGHTMARE FUNERAL? No one likes funerals but have you had an especially bad experience? Did it cost far more that you expected? Were you poorly treated? Was it simply not the send-off your friend or relative deserved? ITV are making a film investigating the funeral industry and we want to hear about your experiences. Please […]
Quote of the day
“The challenge in our industry is that our families have almost no idea what benefits they want, much less what they need. The obvious result is a focus on price.” Lajos Szabo, US funeral director
Death kills?
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Back in the day, it was a given of the natural order that the decomposition of our remains made us part of the food chain. In the last few decades, the negative environmental impact of burial and cremation has become an ethical issue. Although there’s increasing scepticism towards scientific claims about […]
Tibetan Carved Skull
Evelyn noticed this masterpiece rolling round the web yesterday – on Imgur and Order of the Good Death more pictures here
What shall we do with the baleful baggists?
“Stick me in a binbag and put me out with the rubbish.” We hear this sentiment voiced so often these days, it’s reached the status of both cultural indicator and cliché. It is a very good way of aborting talk about death and its aftermath, and it is a gambit deployed almost exclusively by men. Why […]
Capturing a life
Posted by Richard Rawlinson From 7 Up in 1964 to 56 Up today, this remarkable documentary series has been filming the same group of people for a biblical seven days of their lives every seven years for almost five decades. Catch 56 Up on ITV at 9pm this Monday, and, if the last two episodes […]
Put it where we can see it
In the US, funeral directors are required by law to give funeral shoppers a copy of their itemised General Price List (GPL). You can see an example here. A funeral director must also give you this price information over the phone. Time moves on, and the internet is now, for many funeral shoppers, their first […]
Bloggus interruptus
This blog is asserting its freedom to say and do whatever it likes by decamping to the seaside for a few days before heading to Scotland for the birth of a granddaughter. During this time it is likely that normal service will suffer some dropout as the team here at the GFG-Batesville Tower sports in the […]
Mourning the machine
Posted by our technology correspondent, Richard Rawlinson Congratulations to Sir Jonathan Ive, creative head of Apple, for his knighthood this week. The Brit behind the superb styling of iPod, iPhone and iPad is perhaps the world’s most influential designer. Part of his brilliance in making his gadgets so alluring is the way he virtually anthropomorphises […]
Another bookcase coffin
From an article in last Sunday’s Telegraph: Kenneth Grange, 82, has designed some of the most familiar products and appliances used in our daily lives, from Kodak cameras to Kenwood food mixers, parking meters and bus shelters to London taxis. He began his career working as an architectural assistant at Arcon Architects before becoming a […]
