The GFG Blog
2014Apr
The gravestones are laughing
Charles
Apr
17
2 comments
In Winwick Churchyard by Josh Ekroy The gravestones are laughing. They tilt at each other’s shoulders, droll tears of lichen blotching their honourable faces. Seated in uneven rows in their auditorium they note church-goers squinch the gravel path to the embossed door. Some lean backwards in mock amazement, others forward,
Making the best
Charles
Apr
16
No Comments
From Being Dead Is No Excuse: Southern women always want to look their best — even if they happen to be dead. Our local undertaker, Bubba Boone, understands this. We brag that Bubba can make you look better than a plastic surgeon can, though, unfortunately, you do have to be
Is the Co-op arranging its own funeral?
Charles
Apr
15
6 comments
Co-op woes have filled the business pages of all our newspapers in recent weeks. The accelerating degenerative disorder afflicting this once-great business has caught them all on the hop, running to catch up. For years its sacred-cow status seems to have protected it from rigorous scrutiny. In the minds of pretty
A question of timing
Charles
Apr
14
12 comments
It can’t be easy writing episodes for soaps. You have to take over a plot designed by a committee and steer your characters through the storyline as plausibly as you can. Sometimes you have to get rid of them, a procedure known as ‘killing off’. You mostly don’t have to
Die-alogue Cafe
Charles
Apr
11
1 comment
First there was Death Café. Then Let’s Have Dinner and Talk About Death. Then Death Salon. Now there’s Die-alogue Cafe Die-alogue Café has been developed by an Australian academic, Stuart Carter. We’ve been talking to Stuart for some time. We like and respect him very much. His purpose is not
Poppy is hiring
Charles
Apr
09
4 comments
Poppy Mardall is looking for her young company’s third full-time employee. Her fresh approach to the business of funerals makes this a job more suitable, perhaps, for someone outside the industry. But she is very open to applications from those within it who feel that her philosophy is also their
Classic
Charles
Apr
08
No Comments
When Pomponius Atticus [a friend of Cicero] fell ill, and medical attempts to prolong his existence merely prolonged his pain, he decided that the best solution was to starve himself to death. No need to petition a court in those days, citing the terminal deterioration in your ‘quality of life’:
Clarissa Tan
Charles
Apr
04
6 comments
If you came to last year’s Good Funeral Awards weekend, you will remember Clarissa Tan. She was the journalist from the Spectator magazine. She had breast cancer. The piece she wrote afterwards inspired the name of this year’s get-together in Bournville: the Ideal Death Show. Clarissa has died of breast
Many Flowers in Carshalton (part 1)
Charles
Apr
01
2 comments
David Hall, of Vintage Lorry Funerals, always speaks to the Florist who is creating the Family’s Floral Tributes at the earliest opportunity after his lorry has been booked for a funeral. David designs a layout that will feature the Family’s Tributes prominently, he makes a sketch of his ideas and
2014Mar
What’s for love and what’s for money?
Charles
Mar
31
3 comments
If there’s one thing that really vexes people in the funerals business it’s the question of who gets paid for what – and how much. Take the business of conducting a funeral. In England, when C of E clergy moved their fee up to £160 + travel, lots of people
