What They Say About The Guide
It is still early days in the review process but, to date, this is what people are saying about the Good Funeral Guide:
* five reviewers have given it five stars on Amazon
* The Good Book Stall says of it: “Charles Cowling speaks openly and with clarity about every aspect of the practicalities of death and funerals. The result is a surprisingly gripping book to read and one that will help many to help themselves through what we all know can be a difficult time. Don’t wait till the need arises, read it now and have it to hand when you do need it.”
* The Norwich Christian Resource Centre says: “There are not many books that you can say with assurance should be in every home without exception, this is definitely one! Death and everything in connection with it is so often a taboo subject. Charles Cowling speaks openly and with clarity about every aspect of the practicalities of death and funerals. The result is a surprisingly gripping book to read and one that will help many to help themselves through what we all know can be a difficult time. Don’t wait till the need arises, read it now.”
* I have received a strong objection by an embalmer to my description of embalming, and I accept that my account may in one place have been disrespectful. In others, it is admiring. Embalming is a practice about which I am ambivalent.
* Bob Butz, author of Going Out Green, says about Charles Cowling that he is: “One of those wonderful and sadly all-to-rare writers who are able to be witty, serious, and funny all at the same time.”
* Help the Hospices says of it: “The content is extremely comprehensive, but is broken down into easily-assimilated sections … there are also plenty of signposts to relevant websites.”
* The Funeral Service Journal, the august journal of the Dismal Trade (I was dreading this review), was actually quite kind. “The chapters on tribute writing and the one entitled ‘Choose Your Ingredients’ … cannot be bettered. In addition, there are a number of helpful checklists. The material is helpful, practical and realistic … It is also a text which will raise eyebrows in some quarters; not through its contents but by the style Cowling has adopted. In short, the Good Funeral Guide is provocative … There is more than an element of truth in many of Cowling’s observations. His motivation to write this book comes from an impassioned desire for funerals — and the system of how they are arranged — to be improved. However, the relentlessly challenging and at times sensational vocabulary makes this book as much a commentary as it is a guide.”