The Separation Line
The Separation Line was produced over a fourteen-month period between 2010 and 2011 and observes how the repatriation ceremonies of Wootton Bassett provided a rite of passage, representing an insight into the ongoing experiences of British soldiers returning from War. During the two hour gathering and subsequent ten minute ceremony, lay all of those contradictory […]
London’s Pyramid of Death
Posted by Belinda Forbes In the second of BBC Radio 4’s series Unbuilt Britain, Jonathan Glancey describes one of the most audacious buildings ever planned for London – it would have been the largest pyramid ever built. Church yards were so crowded at the beginning of the 19th century that corpses were literally bursting out […]
Mourning glory
By our funeral historian, Richard Rawlinson Ashes into Glass is a jewellery company that inserts cremation ashes into crystal glass rings, pendants, earring and cufflinks. See the results here “It has helped me feel a little calmer about losing my dear Mum by knowing that a little part of her is always with me,” says Teresa Evans […]
An affair of the heart
From today’s Daily Telegraph: Dedicated Winston Howes, 70, spent a week planting each oak sapling after his wife of 33 years Janet died suddenly 17 years ago. He laid out the fledgling trees in a six-acre field but left a perfect heart shape in the middle – with the point facing in the direction of […]
Briefest of Lives
Here is the entire brief life of Dr Richard Stokes: Scholar to Sir William Oughtred for Mathematiques (Algebra). Made himself mad with it, but became sober again, but I feare like a crackt glasse. Became Roman Catholique. Married unhappily at Liège, dog and catt, etc. Became a sotte. Dyed in Newgate, prisoner for debt, April […]
Great biz idea for somebody
Why (oh why) has no one developed a waterproof teddy bear for child graves? Can’t be rocket science, surely? Come on, you budding entrepreneurs!
Can you help?
Space burial is about sending a portion of cremation ashes into space, then releasing them so that they can orbit the Earth. Up in Glasgow, Tom Walkinshaw is developing his own space burial programme. It’s ambitious stuff. He’s won an award from Glasgow Caledonian University and he has the support of the Prince’s Scottish Youth […]
New life for old dead people
It may have passed us by here at the GFG-Batesville Tower. We can wear thin. Exciting innovation, breathlessly announced in gushing PR-ese, sometimes gets the yeah-yeah. We’re talking about the US trend for putting QR codes on headstones. Has it crossed the Atlantic yet? If not, why not? We concede that it may have. It’s […]
The Art of Portrait Sculpture
“Death Mask Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1769-1830” Can be seen at Presence: The Art of Portrait Sculpture With portraits by artists from Giacometti to Ron Mueck, Presence is a terrific gathering of people carved, cast, modelled in clay or turned to stone. The Observer’s Laura Cumming takes a look at some of the works on show Presence: […]
Capturing a life
Posted by Richard Rawlinson From 7 Up in 1964 to 56 Up today, this remarkable documentary series has been filming the same group of people for a biblical seven days of their lives every seven years for almost five decades. Catch 56 Up on ITV at 9pm this Monday, and, if the last two episodes […]
