Partial eclipse of the Moonies
The Moonies, followers of that well-known oxymoron Sun Moon, want to create a one-acre natural burial ground in the village of Stanton Fitzwarren, near Swindon. It’s not just for Moonies; the villagers are welcome, too. The villagers aren’t happy, of course. The English are not natural-born embracers of change (or even of each other); they […]
Tarantara!
The Good Funeral Guide is published today! Available from all good bookshops, one or two very bad ones and all the usual online suspects.
Carla
Here’s the news I’ve been dreading and, if you’ve been following Carla’s blog, you will have been, too. In her own words: Carla Zilbersmith, born December 15, 1962, died today, May 17th, 2010. Carla Zilbersmith died in her home this afternoon of Lou Gherig’s disease, also known as ALS. Carla Zilbersmith was mother to Maclen Zilber, […]
Greening grief
The GFG motored purposefully south yesterday afternoon to Chiltern Woodland Burial Park. It was a three-birds-with-one-stone mission: to have a look at this well-heeled natural burial ground; to hear the great Dr Bill Webster talk about grief; and to meet up with Louise from Sentiment and Jon from MuchLoved, two of Funeralworld’s Good Guys. I […]
Dig those stats
I received this interesting insight into Dignity’s profitability the other day from a good friend of the GFG, Andrew Plume. I was mulling over some Dignity stats the other day. Much is made of 65,000 funerals having been carried out for year ending December 2009. Given that they merrily declare having “546 funeral locations” in the […]
A funeral is a branding exercise
“The woman seated next to me on the plane told me her name was Stefanie but that she went by Adventure Girl … Then Adventure Girl asked me what my brand was. No one had ever asked me that before.” Thus begins a quest by Joel Stein to find his brand. “To get my brand […]
Funeral food – Kate Campbell
AuntAunt Fidelia Brought the rolls With her Green bean casserole The widow Smith Down the street Dropped by a bowl Of butter beans Plastic cups And silverware Lime green Tupperware everywhere Pass the chicken Pass the pie We sure eat good When someone dies Funeral food It’s so good For the soul Funeral food Fills […]
Nick Gandon on funeral costs
Nick Gandon operates the UK’s first and, so far as I know, only dedicated direct cremation service. Here is the comment he left on this post from a few days ago, and which you might have missed. I first wrote about Nick here. When I started out in the world of funerals, they were just […]
Catastrophe!
Here at GFG HQ we are in turmoil. Our computer crashed yesterday and, to cut a long story short, some hands were lost and we have a new operating system to get used to. Worst of everything, I have lost my entire archive of emails and e-addresses. So if you’ve contacted me recently, and haven’t […]
Peaceful Pillow
Why a pillow, I wonder? Especially a pillow that looks nothing like a pillow. I’m not at all sure that the feeding-duck look as it goes down is a good look. If you turn down the music this gets dull. These guys have missed a trick, leaving a gap in the market for you. Stuff […]
