The GFG Blog

2024Jul

Making it personal

Fran Hall
Jul 12
3 comments
Here at the Good Funeral Guide ,we’re very proud of our unique accreditation programme. We look at each funeral business entirely from a consumer point of view. It’s thorough, it’s thoughtful and explores every aspect of what goes into, or what should go into, creating and running a funeral for the person
Categories:  Corporate funeral directors, funeral directors, independent funeral directors

2024Jun

Saving your family all the stress?

Fran Hall
Jun 04
2 comments
We have long held a wary opinion of pre-paid funeral plans here at the GFG.  Over the years, we have published numerous blog posts warning people to be extremely careful and to do as much research as possible before committing to purchasing a funeral plan.  It’s an absolutely huge market. A multi-billion-pound market.
Categories:  Dignity, funeral plans, Safe Hands Funeral Plans

2024May

But what about the ashes?

Fran Hall
May 29
1 comment
Recent disturbing incidents in the news continue to cause bereaved families across the UK worry and concern about whether they have been given the correct cremated remains of the person who has died. We thought it would be helpful to have some clear information in the public domain about exactly
Categories:  ashes, cremated remains, cremation Tags:  cremated remains

2024Mar

Where trust is not enough

Fran Hall
Mar 14
No Comments
The recent news about the police investigations at a funeral directors in Hull should rightly concern all of us. The care of those who have died is a sacred task, one that is usually entrusted to funeral staff when we employ a funeral director to help with organising a funeral.   We assume
Categories:  Arranging a funeral, Funerals, Uncategorised

2024Feb

Our Direct it Yourself Green Funeral

Fran Hall
Feb 22
2 comments
From time to time, we publish guest blogs, and today we are delighted to share this beautiful account by Kirsty O’Leary-Leeson who writes movingly about her personal experience organising a funeral for her mum. “I am writing this because we shouldn’t be scared of organising funerals; we all go away
Categories:  DIY funeral, Funerals

2023Nov

The GFG goes international (part 2)

Fran Hall
Nov 30
No Comments
Whilst my fellow directors were attending and leading workshops at the Good Death Festival in the Czech Republic I was off on an adventure of my own – a spur of the moment life’s too short trip to Vietnam but of course I couldn’t quite resist having a little look
Categories:  funeral customs, Funerals, funerals in other cultures

The GFG goes international (part 1)

Fran Hall
Nov 28
No Comments
It’s almost three weeks now since Isabel and I set off to be part of the K smrti dobrý festival – ‘A Festival about death and its presence in our lives’, which took place in Ostrava, in the far eastern part of The Czech Republic. We were invited after our fabulous patron, Zenith Virago,
Categories:  death and funerals, Death; Good death

2023Aug

The Climate Emergency. Could your funeral plan be part of the problem?

Fran Hall
Aug 01
3 comments
As the UK government congratulates itself on its decision to expand UK fossil fuel exploration, something that is perceived internationally as disastrous, it seems timely to publish this latest piece from our green correspondent: “We’re starting a journey. We want to understand how funeral plans are potentially fuelling climate breakdown. 
Categories:  Environment, The future of funerals Tags:  Climate Emergency, Environment, Funeral plans, Funerals

2023Jul

‘Mooving Funerals’

Fran Hall
Jul 25
7 comments
We recently had our attention drawn to a new campaign that has been launched by the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF), in conjunction with Westerleigh, the cremation company. The campaign (described as a toolkit) is intended to aid small funeral businesses faced with the aggressive marketing tactics of
Categories:  Marketing, SAIF Tags:  Funerals

1,000 days

Fran Hall
Jul 15
3 comments
Today it is 1,000 days since Steve died. It feels right to acknowledge this somehow, at least by writing something. I don’t feel inclined to go and spend time by his grave, unlike at the more ancient markers of time, when the seasons turn at the solstices; I’m always drawn
Categories:  Absolute Beginner - A Personal Story of Grief