What constitutes corpse abuse?
We don’t have abuse of a corpse laws in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, nor Scotland, not like they do in the US. Indeed, the laws around what you can, can’t and must do with a corpse in the UK are few — so few that we’ve never managed to discover what they are. Perhaps […]
Keeping in with the in-breath
Caroline Goyder, voice coach to the stars and lesser luminaries, asked us to call to mind the person we love most. Did you notice, she asked after we’d done it, that you marked their arrival in your mind with a little in-breath? Did you? When you’re speaking in public, she says, you need to preface […]
You, the good news and Channel 5
We are pleased to pass on to you this appeal from a TV production company making a good-news documentary for Channel 5. We’ve spoken to them at length and like them. If you have created a really special funeral, or are a funeral director or a celebrant who has collaborated, or is currently collaborating, with […]
RIP Browny
Two years ago, Billy Jenkins was interviewed by Ian Brown for his ‘ultimate wasting time’ website Planet Browny. The guitarist instinctively plucked and strummed this 1936 classic from his huge repertoire…. Browny suddenly just passed away in his sleep in the early hours of Saturday the 22nd September 2012. He was 49 years old…..
Reports reach us that Britain’s first-ever charitable funeral director, Norfolk Funerals, has failed to display vital signs for some time; the premises have a Marie Celeste air; the phone goes straight to answer machine. We looked at Norfolk Funerals in May of this year. Does anyone know what’s happened?
Cool heads, warm hearts
Anticipation is building in advance of ITV’s upcoming exposé of the funeral industry. We don’t have to tell you that the industry’s pulse is beating fast in anticipation of ITV’s upcoming shocker. Pre-emptive fury and sulphurous denunciation have already broken out in the comments columns of our blog, threatening to subvert the civility and coolness […]
Undertaker chic
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Autumn/winter 2012/13 fashions are in the stores and Downton Abbey is back on TV for another series. Black is often a fashion favourite for the cooler seasons, but when black is coupled with Dowtonesque, Edwardian styling, the trend takes on a distinctly funereal look. The mood continues into interiors trends with cool […]
A literary undertaking
“From that moment my mind was made up – I wanted to be an undertaker. That was that and all there was about it.” “A LIFE IN DEATH – Memoirs Of A Cotswold Funeral Director” by James Baker “A Life In Death” takes the reader into the largely hidden world of death and funerals, as set […]
Problem solved
When Co-operative Funeralcare reported itself to the NAFD in the aftermath of Channel 4’s Undercover Undertaker, it is doubtful whether the industry’s major trade body greeted the ploy with glee. A problem shared is a problem doubled. Was it really necessary for Funeralcare to hand themselves in? Inasmuch as the film revealed practices which fell far short […]
Thoughts of a funeral-goer
Posted by Lyra Mollington Daisy is one of those people who pretends she hasn’t a care in the world when really she is a quivering heap of insecurity and doubt. Ask her how old she is and she will cheerily reply, ‘21 and holding!’ (She’s 71 and slowly slipping like the rest of us.) She’s been […]
