The Purpose of Funerals: Overview
The first in a major series of posts by guest blogger Jenny Uzell, scholar and undertaker One of the highlights of the National Funeral Exhibition for me earlier this year (other than the chance to contemplate, yet again, the many ways in which my life has taken an unexpected turn for the bizarre) was hearing […]
Absence of belief is not the be-all and end-all
In an article in the Telegraph, atheist Brendan O’Neill asks: When did atheists become so teeth-gratingly annoying? Surely non-believers in God weren’t always the colossal pains in the collective backside that they are today? Surely there was a time when you could say to someone “I am an atheist” without them instantly assuming you were […]
Funeral plans and the ‘peace of mind’ delusion
It may be that the media are beginning to wake up to the inadequacies of pay-now-die-later funeral plans. The Times has a piece today which, chances are, you won’t be able to read online because you haven’t got a key to the paywall. So I’ll summarise. It highlights third-party costs that funeral plans generally do […]
The way we were
Elderly people reflect on their reflections of themselves when young. Entitled ‘Reflections’, it is the work of Tom Hussey. Hat-tip to Caitlin Doughty, who posted a link to this on her Facebook page the other day. Please note that here at the GFG we now post most of our stuff on Facebook these days. If […]
Good Funeral Awards 2013 — The Longlist
From Brian Jenner over at GoodFuneralAwards The judging panel of the Good Funeral Awards have sifted through more than 600 nominations for this year’s Good Funeral Awards and have longlisted the following. The judges have requested that their deliberations remain secret. While they appreciate that many people will be disappointed, they wish to remind everyone […]
Bah humbug! Blame Dickens for undertaker-phobia
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Imagine picking up a well-thumbed penny novel by an unknown Victorian author at your secondhand bookshop and, on starting to read it, discovering to your surprise that a family of undertakers is depicted in a favourable light. We’re used to Charles Dickens, who loathed undertakers as much as he despised Jews […]
Vultures circle over Funeralcare
From Sky News: The Co-operative Group has rebuffed a string of takeover approaches for its funerals arm amid a controversial restructuring of its troubled banking division. Sky News has learnt that buyout firms including CVC Capital Partners, the controlling shareholder of Formula One motor racing, and Montagu Private Equity, a former owner of the Dignity […]
Say Their Name
Film made by Jimmy Edmonds and Jane Harris, nominated for a Good Funeral Award. Beautifully crafted and very, very powerful.
Vanishing point – what’s the best method?
Guest post by Steve Every funeral at a crematorium will have a point at which the coffin is removed from the sight of the mourners, usually during the committal. To start off with, is there an optimal speed of removing the coffin from view? Some curtains close in just 10 seconds, which may be […]
Validating the unverifiable
Last year’s TV documentaries revealed shocking scenes in funeral home mortuaries which horrified undertakers as much as they did the public. But just as the documentaries did not rouse the public to descend in angry mobs on their nearest funeral home, so they failed, also, to rouse good undertakers to fight back by demonstrating convincingly […]
