You could just get away with it
What’s bad news for undertakers is good news for the rest of us. And the good news for the rest of us is that, in the words of the Guardian, Less of us are dying than at any time since mortality data was collected. Good news for the rest of us, but rotten news for […]
Whither Richard?
I don’t know about you, but I’m missing Richard Rawlinson, our genially provocative once and future (I hope) blogger on religious affairs, fashion, art, you name it. What brought my nostalgia home was reading about a cause close to his heart, the tug of war for the skeleton of Richard III (if it’s really him), […]
Strange bedfellows?
The economic crisis in Greece has got so bad that football clubs are having to scour surviving businesses for sponsorship. Reuters reports that: Palaiopyrgos – many of whose players still attend school – have signed a deal with a funeral home. “For us it was a matter of survival,” manager Lefteris Vassiliou told Greek radio. Despite […]
Dunnarunna
Special communiqué from the Guvnor of the GFG, Sir Basil Batesville-Casket KBE, CDM, RLSS (Bronze) Blog Ed has up and hopped it to the coast for what he tells us is a well-deserved break. We’ll be the judge of that. There won’t be a job for him when he gets back. We need a better […]
No smoke without…
Hastings District Council has closed the chapel at the crematorium due to concerns over its earthquake strength. More here In Germany, a van carrying 12 coffins to a crematorium was stolen while the drivers enjoyed a comfort break. Here.
The kindness of strangers, UK vs US
Alexandra Frean is The Times’ bureau chief in Washington. She is British. When her husband died suddenly, one of my first thoughts was: “We’re all alone in a strange place.” But I was wrong. We were not alone. News of our plight spread around our neighbourhood within hours because the woman next door, unaware of […]
GFG ‘Recommended By’ listing relaunch
We have relaunched our ‘Recommended By’ scheme for funeral directors with a radically remodelled accreditation framework designed to make it sustainable and authoritative nationwide. As you know, we already have a limited listing of recommended funeral directors – a listing to which we have not added for some months. Why? Because of the very […]
RIP Lady Sybil ur in good hands
Dismalistas held rapt by the nativity of the first new-generation Crawley in the we’re-all-in-it-together tellydrama Downton Abbey, but who were then dumped into deepest grief by the death of Lady Sybil, will have felt their ears prick up at the announcement of the arrival of “Grassby’s men” to remove her body. Yes, Julian Fellowes, the […]
The importance of a good end
Ever heard of the peak-end rule? In the words of Wikipedia: According to the peak–end rule, we judge our experiences almost entirely on how they were at their peak and how they ended, regardless of valency [duration] (whether pleasant or unpleasant). Other information is not lost, but it is not used. This includes net pleasantness or unpleasantness and […]
Parp
This blog tends as a rule towards seemly and proper self-deprecation, but we hope you’ll forgive us if we sound a short, breathy toot on our own trumpet. There’s a great deal of interest in death these days. Funerals, to be precise. We’ve lost count of the calls we’ve had from TV production companies in […]
