Funerals
Keep fun out of funerals
There are two untraditional ways to take your leave of this world in Britain. The bleaker is the ‘direct cremation’…
A miracle beckons: Phantom Limb, by Chris Kohler, reviewed
When a severed hand, buried in the 17th century, is accidently unearthed, it proves to have magical powers. Will its discovery propel the local church minister to stardom?
Death was everywhere for the Victorians, but it was never commonplace
In a society obsessed with the trappings of grief, funerals were often elaborate occasions, with commemorative medals struck and strict rules applied to the period of mourning
Everyday life in the Eternal City: Roman Stories, by Jhumpa Lahiri, reviewed
Each story circles around events both big and small, such as lunch at a simple trattoria, a birthday party, a summer holiday or the funeral of a friend
Funeral gatecrasher: The Black Dress, by Deborah Moggach, reviewed
Here is a rare dud from the usually reliable Deborah Moggach. Her protagonist, Pru, finds herself alone at 69 after…
The importance of a good funeral
A proper funeral is a great comfort
The pagan rites of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg succumbed to cancer, #RestInPower immediately trended. The ACLU, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, actress Reese Witherspoon and the ostensibly…
Who deserves a funeral?
No one would argue that Rep. John Lewis doesn’t deserve a proper memorial. He was a civil rights icon and…
Remember when Joe Biden gave a eulogy for Strom Thurmond?
Biden did not attend the private funeral and burial of George Floyd today. Instead, Biden recorded a video to be…
The comfort of building your own coffin
The rise of ‘coffin clubs’
The Polish electronic music revolution of the 1950s
It was created in November 1957, a year before the BBC’s fabled Radiophonic Workshop, and was far more influential in…
Dear Mary: I’m disabled – how can I stop my carer being so controlling?
Q. I am a disabled man with a good brain and an independent bent. However, I need help to wash…
Is the increasing secularisation of funerals a good thing?
‘You’re thinking these girls all wrong,’ Miss Mai tells Enid in Winsome Pinnock’s play Leave Taking, adapted from the recent…
J.S. Bach v. Joan Baez
I was at a funeral the other day at which the music was so inspiring that I struggled to feel…
Dear Mary
Q. Mary, I am what you would probably call a Sloane Ranger. I have great numbers of close friends and…
The slow (and ignominious) death of the British funeral
I mourn for the traditional ceremony
Dear Mary: How do I address a magistrate of indeterminate sex?
Q. Some years ago, while appearing as a barrister before a bench of three magistrates in the youth court, I…
Why I love undertakers
By looking after the dead, funeral directors allow the living to love and mourn them
Dear Mary: Why it's fine to crash funerals
Q. Regarding the writing of ‘no presents’ on an invitation (Dear Mary, 6 July), my own experience is that many…
