I hated my brother. When he died, all I felt was happiness…
Liz Hodgkinson writing in The Daily Mail 31 July 2012 The news came as a shock, yes, but it didn’t provoke tears, or even any sense of grief. I’d just heard from my niece that my brother Richard had died of a heart attack, aged 62, following an apparently minor operation. And all I felt […]
Learning to dance with death
Posted by Vale I was reading the vision statement for the Dying Matters Coalition recently (as you do) and stubbed my toe on their ambition to address death, dying and bereavement in a way that: ’will involve a fundamental change in society in which dying, death and bereavement will be seen and accepted as the […]
Post mortem photography
Posted by Vale We had quite a debate recently when we published some recent post mortem photgraphs. They were respectful, intriguing and, some of them, quite lovely in their own way. But they made us – and some of you – uneasy. Did the photographer have permission to publish? Was it right to expose the […]
My Southbank Deathfest
Posted by Vale Some personal reflections on the Southbank Deathfest this weekend: Imagine a wire and steel footbridge over the Thames: brown water lapping, St Paul’s, pale in the wintry light, downstream. Drop down to buildings, a collection of concrete and glass halls that were modern once but which, in the way of those brave […]
Can you identify me?
Posted by Vale A young girl went missing. A body was found. A young man went to the police and said that she might be his sister. They said that was not possible; her age is wrong. That was how it happened back in 1994. Today, police are looking for this man. The man who […]
Publishing event of the year!
The Natural Death Handbook, Fifth Edition A thoroughly updated and revised edition of the Natural Death Centre‘s celebrated handbook. Now presented alongside a new collection of essays on death, dying and funeral practices by doctors, historians, authors, poets, theologians and artists including Richard Barnett, David Jay Brown, Dr Sheila Cassidy, Charles Cowling, Bill Drummond, Stephen Grasso, […]
There were six of us in the house. Seconds ago there had been seven.
Fran and her Mum on her 70th Fran Hall, a funeral industry practitioner of many years’ standing, much admired by the GFG, now works as a consultant. She is also the newly-appointed Chair of the Natural Death Centre. For years Fran successfully managed to balance detatchment and empathy in her professional life, so how did it feel when […]
Jazz requiem
Posted by Vale This lovely jazz piece was actually a requiem for Charlie Parker – but at risk of offending purists I thought Frank O’Hara’s poem for Billie Holiday on the day she died fitted perfectly with the music. The Day Lady Died It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille […]
Remembering
Posted by Vale One evening last month we lit some candles, sat by the fire with an old book of photographs and reminisced about my wife’s mother who had died just over ten years before. It was the first time we had done anything like this, but, over the last ten years, we have lost […]
Proxy grievers
Presently serving the bereaved of Essex and Suffolk we have a new concept in funeral service, the professional mourner. They’re called Rent a Mourner, we wish them every possible success, and you can find them here. Did we say new? There’s nothing new in Funeralworld. Every innovation is an act of necromancy. In our scholarly […]
