Taha Muhammed Ali
In October a great Palestininian poet died. Taha Muhammed Ali was self taught and, all his life, earned his living as a shopkeeper in Nazareth. He was witness all of the agonies and upheavals of the time – but but when he thought of his own death dreamt only of sleep and tea. Here’s the […]
Blackberry Stone
Posted by Sweetpea I am fascinated by those lesser explored emotions at funerals. When I visit a family, I carry poetry and music with me for those who are struggling to find expression. Of course, it’s comparatively easy to find things which talk about love in its more conventional forms – we are almost […]
OMG!!! Men of Mortuaries
Posted by Vale ‘Aren’t undertakers old, gray of complexion, gaunt and, well, creepy?’ It’s the opening question in a 2007 article in America’s Obit magazine and, of course, the answer is no – as evidenced by the photographs shown in a calendar displaying all that is best of American male mortician manhood. The Calendars were […]
Something for the weekend
A little while ago I had a debate with Jonathan Taylor within this blog about funeral music. I have no interest in music, I said, can think of nothing that would describe me or sum me up, want nothing. I prefer spoken words. Jonathan then had one of those moments of heady inspiration, the greatest […]
An angel whispers “Come in, mate.”
For me, the music died the day Led Zeppelin released their first album. Pop got intellectual, up itself, the mope and dope bunch sagely mulling finer points of riffs and runs. It set friends against each other. Simon bought a bass guitar, I bought a ukulele and got heavily into music hall. It was love, […]
Laptops Direct: a statement
The Good Funeral Guide has an ethical way with would-be advertisers. They besiege our central London penthouse office suite daily, you know. No, we say, gently but menacingly, we will not take your money and promote your product. Yes, yes, we fully understand that you find it almost impossible to persuade undertakers to offer your […]
The world of death has given birth to very few websites of any value or beauty. Most undertakers are technodunces; many do not even rise to email.What’s more, there is very little discussion of death and dying going on in this country (the UK) just now. I have far more responses to this blog from […]
He died as a fool
One more post about how we should speak of and to our dead people. All of us, probably, cling to the superstition that we should not speak ill of them — not too ill, anyway (just mildly critically, perhaps). To do so could have calamitous, possibly supernatural, consequences. Hush and awe hold us in their […]
Where beauty softens grief
I’m indebted to Pam Vetter for pointing me to an article about post-mortem cosmetic procedures. This is not a big issue in the UK as it is in the US (Pam lives in LA), but it goes on here all the same. Funeral directors earn gratitude for presenting bodies looking as if they quite like […]
Ghastly good taste
One mistake this blog will never make: it will never engage in debates about taste. Each to their own, I say, all the while keeping my personal views encased in concrete behind a suave and serene demeanour. “We’re one but we’re not the same”, as my good friend Bono so sagely sings. So right, Bono. […]
