Saying ‘Adios’: The Hidden Benefit of Direct Cremations in Spain
Guest post by Glynis German “I was interested to see a questionnaire prepared by The Good Funeral Guide (GFG) which I found on the End of Life Doula UK’s Facebook page a little while ago. GFG were gathering information on the topic of Direct Cremations, this low cost approach to funerals, growing in popularity in the UK. As there is very little research in this area, […]
Direct cremation – tell us your thoughts
The number of people in the UK choosing direct cremation has risen significantly in recent years, with some indicators suggesting as many as one in five are opting for an unattended cremation. We have had a lot of conversations with others in the funeral sector over the last few months, and as Dying Matter Awareness […]
Cost of Dying 2025 Report – Five things to know
Guest post by Poppy’s Funerals Every year, financial services company Sun Life publishes their research report into funerals: The Cost of Dying. The 2025 report, which came out this week, doesn’t just look at costs but also at wider funeral trends. Having this data publicly available is good news for transparency. It helps start important conversations about […]
One of ours
We’re a bit late to the party, as this came out last week, but we were prompted by a comment from a regular reader on another blog post (thanks Andrew!!) We were delighted to see one of our Recommended Funeral Directors featured in a documentary on ITV. Poppy’s Funerals were described as ‘female-led funeral directors out to buck several trends in male-dominated industry’. We like […]
We haven’t approved you, Dignity Funerals
We want to make it very clear to anyone who might be unaware – the Good Funeral Guide CIC had nothing to do with the recent announcement of Dignity PLC’s sidekick, Simplicity Cremations as ‘The Best Direct Cremation Provider 2018’ with a ‘Good Funeral Award’. Having been co-organiser since they began, the Good Funeral Guide […]
Are you a funeral celebrant?
The GFG is delighted to have been invited to join representatives of various organisations on a working group to look at the role of funeral celebrants. We’ve called this working group the Funeral Celebrancy Council and last week the FCC spoke to hundreds of celebrants at the second National Celebrant Convention about the work we’ve been […]
Going Green at Brookwood Cemetery
It’s been twenty five years since the inspirational Ken West MBE opened the very first natural burial ground at Carlisle cemetery, and here at GFG Towers we felt that this landmark anniversary needed to be acknowledged. Members of the Good Funeral Guild felt so too, and, under gentle pressure from Stephen Laing we have […]
To SAIF – an open letter from a member
An open letter to SAIF, the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors from Cara Mair, Director, ARKA Original Funerals, sent 4th May 2018. Dear all at SAIF I write this to you as a longstanding member of SAIF, in the hope that you will not see this letter negatively, but more as a […]
Dead and Gone
We’ve been pondering on an important subject. In 21st century Britain, many of us may not have seen or spent time with the body of someone who has died. We may not have witnessed the profound absence of person in the familiar features of a corpse, nor experienced the thoughts and emotions of being in […]
Look what’s cooking.
There’s something afoot in funeral world. Letters have been pinging into the inbox of funeral directors around the country advising them of a shiny new entrant into the world of undertaking. “Over the next few days you may read about a new funeral company called Hospice Funerals LLP. It has been set up by St […]
