The GFG Blog
2010Jul
When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
Charles
Jul
19
1 comment
Here’s a seasonal number (with apologies to US and Scotch readers, to whom cricket probably makes no sort of sense at all). This is the song that DJ John Peel agreed with his producer, John Walters, would be played on the radio when he died. It didn’t happen. Walters died
The Lazarus touch
Charles
Jul
18
5 comments
Thank you, all those of you who expressed solicitude during my little illness. I am very touched. I can see now why it is that women outlive men. It is because they sensibly enlist medical science to deal with symptoms as they occur, they don’t impatiently wait for them to go away. And
Down with the dead men
Charles
Jul
12
10 comments
The perpetrator of this blog is unwell. The vast outpouring will recommence on his recovery (DV).
What’s in a coffin?
Charles
Jul
09
9 comments
At Musgrove Willow you can go and watch the coffin being made — and even lend a hand. There’s a big coffin show on at Chiltern Woodland Burial Park this weekend. I can’t make it, sad to say. If you can, it looks good. And Chiltern is a lovely place.
Embalming: a matter not of if but when
Charles
Jul
08
4 comments
Nobody I can think of would dispute the assertion that it’s good for the bereaved to spend time with their dead, contemplating their absence – what I like to call their very present absence. There is a debate about how dead a person should look. Some people want to spend
Funeral directors as social entrepreneurs?
Charles
Jul
07
7 comments
Yesterday I wrote about the two problems that most bedevil funeral directors. First, in the public perception, they offer poor value for money, a charge of which they are, most of them, innocent. Second, they may feel that they occupy a marginalised position in society because people wonder what’s under
Rebranding the Dismal Trade
Charles
Jul
06
8 comments
Funeral directors know that they are viewed with suspicion, aversion, distrust. It’s what they do that lies at the root of this – the dark art of dealing with dead bodies. Yuk. How different they are from us. We don’t like people who are different from us. But most people
David vs Goliath
Charles
Jul
05
10 comments
This blog gets as tired of the sound of its own voice as, probably, you do. So it welcomes guest posts from whoever wishes to sound off, air a view, explore an idea — whatever. If you would like to make use of this platform, please feel free. Just send
Good with grief
Charles
Jul
02
4 comments
The banner on The Co-operative website proclaims that it is “good for everyone.” This accords with the long-held and passionate belief of all who toil at GFG HQ. To us, it’s a resounding statement of the obvious. We thought it was common knowledge. It looks, though, as if Co-op’s marketing
Dying inside (2)
Charles
Jul
02
No Comments
A few days ago I blogged about death and dying inside prison. If it’s the sort of thing that interests you at all, you’ll be interested in a post over at Jailhouselawyer’s blog. In most British prisons there are old men in their late sixties and seventies, at least three-quarters
