A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards

Author: Peter Ross
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 147226780X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'In his absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries . . . a considered and moving book on the timely subject of how the dead are remembered, and how they go on working below the surface of our lives.' - Hilary Mantel 'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The Guardian 'The pages burst with life and anecdote while also examining our relationship with remembrance.' - Financial Times (best travel books of 2020) 'Among the year's most surprising "sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View. In a year with so much death, it may have initially seemed a hard sell, but the author's humanity has instead acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' -The Sunday Times 'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer 'Ross has written [a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds.' - Evening Standard (*Best New Books of Autumn 2020*) 'One of the non-fiction books of the year.' - The i paper (*2020 Best Books for Christmas*) 'Brilliant.' - Stylist (*Best Christmas books for Christmas 2020*) 'Never has a book about death been so full of life. James Joyce and Charles Dickens would've loved it - a book that reveals much gravity in the humour and many stories in the graveyard. It also reveals Peter Ross to be among the best non-fiction writers in the country.' - Andrew O'Hagan For readers of The Salt Path, Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane. Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning writer Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths? All of these sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.

How to Read a Graveyard

Author: Peter Stanford
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441179771
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Looks at graveyards and burial practices and the ways that they can help us understand how people have understood and dealt with death.

These Silent Mansions

Author: Jean Sprackland
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448182441
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
'A refreshingly original meditation... I wish I had written it myself' Literary Review Graveyards are oases: places of escape, peace and reflection. Liminal sites of commemoration, where the past is close enough to touch. Yet they also reflect their living community - how in our restless, accelerated modern world, we are losing our sense of connection to the dead. Jean Sprackland - the prize-winning poet and author of Strands - travels back through her life, revisiting her once local graveyards. In seeking out the stories of those who lived and died there, remembered and forgotten, she unearths what has been lost.

Necropolis

Author: Catharine Arnold
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847394930
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
From Roman burial rites to the horrors of the plague, from the founding of the great Victorian cemeteries to the development of cremation and the current approach of metropolitan society towards death and bereavement -- including more recent trends to displays of collective grief and the cult of mourning, such as that surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales -- NECROPOLIS: LONDON AND ITS DEAD offers a vivid historical narrative of this great city's attitude to going the way of all flesh. As layer upon layer of London soil reveals burials from pre-historic and medieval times, the city is revealed as one giant grave, filled with the remains of previous eras -- pagan, Roman, medieval, Victorian. This fascinating blend of archaeology, architecture and anecdote includes such phenomena as the rise of the undertaking trade and the pageantry of state funerals; public executions and bodysnatching. Ghoulishly entertaining and full of fascinating nuggets of information, Necropolis leaves no headstone unturned in its exploration of our changing attitudes to the deceased among us. Both anecdotal history and cultural commentary, Necropolis will take its place alongside classics of the city such as Peter Ackroyd's LONDON.

Greyfriars Graveyard

Author: Charlotte Golledge
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445688190
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Book Description
Explore the story of Greyfriars Graveyard, Edinburgh’s most important burial ground since the 16th century.

Scotland Yard's History of Crime in 100 Objects

Author: Alan Moss
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750966556
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
Explore Britain's dark criminal history through the fascinating objects that have been hidden away in the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard, a collection that, although world-famous, is so sensitive it is not open to public view. Each object tells its own story: the briefcase with a concealed syringe owned by the notorious Kray twins; the gun Ruth Ellis used to murder her lover David Blakely; a burnt-out computer from the Glasgow airport car bomb; a picture from the property of Dennis Nilsen of the grisly drain that was blocked with human body parts; and the gun that Edward Oxford fired at Queen Victoria that failed to assassinate her. Updated to feature new objects that have entered the collection since 2015, Scotland Yard's History of Crime in 100 Objects is an absorbing, sometimes shocking and often disturbing journey through criminal history. Peer within to experience a unique insight into the crimes and criminals dealt with by Scotland Yard.

Traditions of Death and Burial

Author: Helen Frisby
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1784423807
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Book Description
Death has been a source of grief and uncertainty for humanity throughout history, but it has also been the inspiration for a plethora of fascinating traditions. The covering of mirrors to prevent the departed spirit from seeing itself; the passing bell rung to assist the soul to heaven; the 'sin eater' who sat beside a coffin eating and drinking to 'absorb' the corpse's sins – all of these were common approaches at one time or another. Yet in the modern day, death has become more clinical than spiritual, something kept hidden behind closed doors. This beautifully illustrated history explores English approaches to death and burial from the medieval era to the present day, exploring ancient customs which have long since lapsed, those such as lighting candles that have survived until the present day, and new approaches such as eco-burials, which are changing how we relate to death, dying and the dead.

Understanding Cemetery Symbols

Author: Tui Snider
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781547047215
Category : Cemeteries
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Understanding Cemetery Symbols" by Tui Snider helps history buffs, genealogists, ghost hunters and other curiosity seekers decode the forgotten meanings of the symbols our ancestors placed on their headstones. By understanding the meaning behind the architecture, acronyms, & symbols found in America's burial grounds, readers will gain a deeper appreciation for these "messages from the dead."

199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

Author: Loren Rhoads
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
ISBN: 0316473790
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Book Description
A hauntingly beautiful travel guide to the world's most visited cemeteries, told through spectacular photography andtheir unique histories and residents. More than 3.5 million tourists flock to Paris's Pè Lachaise cemetery each year.They are lured there, and to many cemeteries around the world, by a combination of natural beauty, ornate tombstones and crypts, notable residents, vivid history, and even wildlife. Many also visit Mount Koya cemetery in Japan, where 10,000 lanterns illuminate the forest setting, or graveside in Oaxaca, Mexico to witness Day of the Dead fiestas. Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery has gorgeous night tours of the Southern Gothic tombstones under moss-covered trees that is one of the most popular draws of the city. 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die features these unforgettable cemeteries, along with 196 more, seen in more than 300 photographs. In this bucket list of travel musts, author Loren Rhoads, who hosts the popular Cemetery Travel blog, details the history and features that make each destination unique. Throughout will be profiles of famous people buried there, striking memorials by noted artists, and unusual elements, such as the hand carved wood grave markers in the Merry Cemetery in Romania.

A Book of Golden Deeds

Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN:
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description