Who never lived and so can never die
Posted by Richard Rawlinson Sherlock Holmes looks nothing like Benedict Cumberbatch, and is in fact the doppelgänger of Charles Cowling. This is, of course, subjective as the casting director of the TV series can present the great detective how he wants, just as a reader of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories can picture him as Charles’ twin bro in […]
Calling all angels
When Ed Emsley, a film student at the University of Falmouth, rang me up to talk about his idea for a documentary about the death industry, I was struck by what a very nice fellow he was. I gave him all the help I could — a mouthful of wellmeaning advice and a list of […]
Chowing down with the antecedents
Debate about attitudes to death, funerals and the commemoration of the dead has largely been colonised by a section of the liberally-educated chattering sector of the middle class. They’re the ones most likely to opinionate about this stuff; they’re the ones who like to think think they can get their heads around it. They are intellectual […]
Today is launch day for the GFG bereavement volunteers scheme
Here at the GFG we’ve been banging on about our community volunteering scheme for some time — here and here for starters. The scheme is designed to address short- and medium-term practical problems facing bereaved people in the aftermath of a death. It promotes community engagement and a neighbourly duty of care. It revives, in a 21st […]
We need no more out of town death malls
Q: What’s Big Money to do? The industry big beasts, Dignity and Co-op, can’t make scale pay except by hiking prices (this may be incompetence). And funeral plans are beginning to look… well, decidedly subprime. A: Burn, baby, burn! Yes, buying and building crematoria is the Next Big Thing in Funeralworld. Already we’re in the […]
Driven to distraction?
Posted by Vale I am a celebrant of the tribe of IOCF (lapsed). We have a short creed that describes a Civil Funeral, it goes: A Civil Funeral is driven by the wishes, beliefs and values of the deceased and their family, not by the beliefs or ideology of the person conducting the funeral. It sits […]
‘Eager yet kindly’ flames
Posted by Richard Rawlinson After her funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral last week, Margaret Thatcher was driven to Mortlake Crematorium in west London before the committal of her ashes alongside her beloved Denis at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Mortlake is a pleasant 1930s building surrounded by peaceful, landscaped gardens. HG Wells, who cremated his wife […]
Introducing Hearse+ for bereaved people who like to drive themselves
James Hardcastle of The Carriagemaster has enjoyed ‘strong successes’ with his self-drive hearse, a venture to which the teeming team here at the GFG-Batesvile Shard has given its unanimous and enthusiastic backing. No one ever went wrong, we like to say (over and over, the record shows), who sought to find ways to empower the […]
How do you define ‘dying’?
Sarah Wootton, chief exec of Dignity in Dying, wrote in Friday’s Times about the case of Paul Lamb, who wants to be allowed to die: Dignity in Dying is not fighting for an unfettered right to die, but for the right of dying people to die well. We believe that right must be based on two core […]
Born on a barge and borne to his final resting place on a barge
Walter Harrison was born on the coal barge Baron in July 1921. He lived on the canal for 30 years and worked on the waterways for much of his life. Family and friends of the pensioner, known as Wally, followed the coffin along the towpath. Full story here.
