Sample Blog – The Good Funeral Guide

‘Killing time’ by Charles Cowling

Fran Hall

Apr 22

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First published 06/10/2008 Photo by Iván Díaz on Unsplash Wherever dead people go they are freed from time. It’s our apprehension of this that adds to our sense of their elsewhereness and convinces us that they will not be coming back. It adds to the mystery, too. It is difficult to conceive of

‘You say it best when you…..’ by Charles Cowling

Fran Hall

Apr 15

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First published 23/09/2008 Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash At yesterday’s funeral I invited people in the audience to have their say after they’d listened to tributes from the family. I tried to make it easy. I gave them time to think about it in advance, acknowledged that speaking in public is hard,

‘Death Porn’ by Charles Cowling

Fran Hall

Apr 08

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First published 02/09/2008 Here’s an interesting and not unconfusing series of pics from today’s Guardian. Entitled ‘Behind the Last Closed Door’, the photos are by Laura Peters and are on show at the Lighthouse Gallery, Wolverhampton, from 3-18 September. ‘What,’ asks the Guardian, ‘happens behind the scenes at crematorium [sic]? A new exhibition

‘Being There’ by Charles Cowling

Fran Hall

Apr 01

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(First published 11/08/2008) Life teems with ticklish antitheses. In the midst of life we are in death: in the midst of death we are in life. It’s a summer’s day which feels like late November. Rain is spitting; the leaves on the chestnut trees are browning. The funeral is over

Ten years in the blink of an eye

Fran Hall

Apr 01

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Image by Isabella Fischer via Unsplash Somehow, it has been ten whole years today since I took the reins at the GFG! And what reins they are, bequeathed to me by our incredible founder Charles Cowling. After babysitting me for a few years, and gradually easing himself out of the

Burial Law Reform

Fran Hall

Mar 18

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(Image courtesy of Jim Thring via Unsplash) The Law Society has today published the first of three reports under its burial, cremation andnew funerary methods project. You can find the report here (all 392 pages) along with a summary document – https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/burial-and-cremation/ – it covers the laws involved with burial

Talking about direct cremation

Fran Hall

Oct 02

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Yesterday, we had the great honour of being invited to take part in the closing debate at the ICCM Learning Conference in Warwickshire. The title of the discussion was ‘Affordable Choice, But at What Cost?’ and the subject was the rise of direct cremation. Our task was to talk about

Saying ‘Adios’: The Hidden Benefit of Direct Cremations in Spain

Fran Hall

Aug 11

1 comment

Guest post by Glynis German “I was interested to see a questionnaire prepared by The Good Funeral Guide (GFG) which I found on the End of Life Doula UK’s Facebook page a little while ago. GFG were gathering information on the topic of Direct Cremations, this low cost approach to funerals, growing in popularity in the UK. As there is very

Funerals – how to spend less

Fran Hall

Jun 10

1 comment

We know how expensive funerals can be and that for some people this is the most worrying aspect of planning a funeral. Talking about money when someone has died can feel difficult too, as though we’re being disrespectful to them or to their memory. It’s why we advocate taking your

Direct cremation – tell us your thoughts

Fran Hall

May 06

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The number of people in the UK choosing direct cremation has risen significantly in recent years, with some indicators suggesting as many as one in five are opting for an unattended cremation. We have had a lot of conversations with others in the funeral sector over the last few months,