Product Description

This is the first contemporary, practical guide that covers all aspects of planning a memorable service. It deals in a fitting and sensitive manner with all the options and possibilities for services and ceremonies, provides an up-to-date guide on the costs, and above all helps make life much easier for family, friends, and loved ones. Complete with real life stories, practical ideas and uplifting photographs, this beautiful book speaks to the heart, sensitively offering the information and inspiration we need at a time of grief and vulnerability. Most people faced with arranging a funeral don't know what they don't know. Written by experienced funeral advisers, it covers all aspects of funerals in order to give you as much choice and participation as you feel you want, including: how much everything costs and how to make plans and arrangements; ideas to help you during the time leading up to the funeral; burial, cremation, green funerals, coffins, venues and memorialisation; and the elements of a good funeral ceremony.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264776 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 198 pages

Review
From the moment you start reading this book you think, "why on earth didn t someone think of writing this years ago?" This splendid book will offer you all the options. --Claire Rayner OBE

It has all the information that you need. It is also rather inspiring. --The Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher
Foreword by Claire Rayner OBE

"From the moment you start reading this book you think ‘Why on earth didn’t
someone think of writing this years ago?’"
Claire Rayner

From the Back Cover
How to plan, budget and arrange a funeral.
The information you need about crematoria, woodland burials, coffins and
scattering of ashes. Beautifully illustrated practical advice in an easy
reference format.

Customer Reviews

Read this BEFORE someone dies
I want my parents' funerals to be special events - to match how special they have been and are to me. I want them to be our family's funerals - not somebody else's idea of what a funeral should be. I want to feel "at home" and connected to them - free to grieve and/or celebrate as I am moved.

This book has helped me see how that can happen - how our family can make it happen (I've already given a copy of this to my brother and am sending a copy to my parents).

When I first bought this book I imagined it would take me a while to read it, I'd have to be in the right space and perhaps even would struggle through parts.

But its layout, its beautifully selected pictures, its clear and concise content and, perhaps best of all, its real stories make it easy to dip into and I found myself reading most of it in one sitting!

Ironically its a book that many will only think about needing or getting after the event or when its too late to make a difference ...

... we have it out in the lounge and I'm showing all my friends it!

Every home should have one!
As someone with a 97 yr old mother, I know that I will have to deal with her passing sooner rather than later. I have wanted to find an appropriate way to honour and celebrate such a long life, but have been dreading even thinking about it. To people like me this book is a treasure of ideas for funerals. AND it's more than just a book on funerals - it's about feeling empowered and prepared to engage positively with loss and grief so that the necessary process of `letting go' can have purpose and meaning for those left behind.

A beautiful and inspiring book - at a time when it is most needed
This is a subject that most have to deal with, and yet which most avoid thinking about until they can avoid no longer. Consequently it is all too easy to hand over as many practicalities as possible and to find an off-the-peg, mass-produced solution. This book shows us that taking more control of the process, and honouring our loved ones in a more individual and thoughtful way, can be both empowering and healing.

Jane Morrell and Simon Smith have created an inspiring and beautiful book. It is a book that is both thought-provoking and gentle, both universal and personal. Above all it is a book that supports and encourages the bereaved to do what they really want to do, and not just what they feel that convention dictates they should do. It enables those who read it to create ceremonies and lasting memories that are totally appropriate and meaningful.