The GFG Blog
2024Jul
Making it personal
Fran Hall
Jul
12
2 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
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.
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
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
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
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
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,
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.
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
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
