Father
Mickey, Cormac and Cathal Mac Connell at the funeral of their brother, Seán Mac Connell When my father died The professionals cried, The undertaker and doctor. Little more need be said Of a man with a heart of gold Locked in a tabernacle of arthritic bones who could melt stones… with his words. Who loved […]
Royal funeral
Not wanting to leave anything to chance, or to the event planning abilities of others, pioneering LGBT activist Jose Sarria laid out specific instructions for how his funeral would go down. His Imperial Court family — all those members of the organization that he founded when he named himself Empress I in 1965 — made it happen, and all […]
Let’s have a feedback frenzy
We don’t do feedback forms at the Good Funeral Awards. Whose eyes light up at the sight of a feedback form (groan)? But that doesn’t mean to say we don’t care like hell what you think. Please say. First, there’s the business of the misnomer. The Good Funeral Awards is but one constituent part of […]
Good Funeral Awards 2013 – the winners and the runners up
Most Promising New Funeral Director Winner: Poppy Mardall Runner-up: Stacey Bentley Embalmer of the Year Winner: Liz Davis Runner-up: Angie Maclachlan. The Eternal Slumber Award for Coffin Supplier of the Year Winner: Yuli Somme Runner-up: Roger Fowle. Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death Winner: Jean Francis Runner-up: Pia Interlandi Crematorium Attendant of the […]
Is Dawkins’s refusal to reassess Darwin a sign of unscientific denial?
By Richard Rawlinson Richard Dawkins has said Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is ‘about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun’. He’s said that ‘understanding evolution led me to atheism’, and that he’s against religion because ‘it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world’. Many […]
Those whom Agni has tasted
3rd post in a series by Jenny Uzzell examining the question: What is a funeral for? For those in Ancient India, it appears that funerals were vitally important, not only to the dead, but also to the smooth running of society. Most of our knowledge about this period comes from the Rg Veda, arguably one […]
Short shrift for the overreachers
You probably missed all this and, in truth, had you been aware, you might have either snorted derisively or, like me, mischievously hung on in there for a bit to see what happened next. I’ll tell you the story now. It’s about a bunch of funeral celebrants who went off on one and had to […]
Alakaline hydrolysis – the facts
The ‘green cremation’ process known most widely in the UK as Resomation after the company of that name is more accurately termed alkaline hydrolysis. We were reminded of that recently by blog reader Jocelyne Monette, keen that we should get the history of alkaline hydrolysis right and give credit where credit is due. The Resomation […]
Good Funeral Awards 2013
The scene is set for the Good Funeral Awards 2013. It’s a sellout. All the nicest people will be there. There’s enough of us to have fun and not so many that we can’t get around everyone and have quality chats with likeminded people we never suspected existed. Our host is Pam St Clement — […]
Britain’s most unreasonable undertaker?
From an email sent to the GFG: Hi Charles A friend told me about your website. She says you you like to hear about interesting funerals. Well wait till you hear about mine. My mum died in hospital — long illness, merciful release and all that. My brother Stephen and I were determined she wasn’t […]
