Fascinating book!
I have no fear of death and perhaps am a little morbidly drawn to it....But for many in the 21st century death is a strange thing, never discussed and often thought not to be part of their lives. But as we know if there is one inevitable thing about living it is that we will die.
There are great illustrations to show the history of the rituals and customs of death and the author has used all the immense research available to good advantage. It reads clearly and often surprises (not shockingly) with little gems that bring the whole thing to life (pun definitely intended!)
There's a great line in the introduction " almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century, however, and it's clear that dying has life in it yet".
We start way back in the Middle Ages where purgatory held sway over humans and their souls. It was important to know which way the soul would go after life - to heaven or to hell. Life was badly affected by famines, plagues, low mortality and as always poverty. Consequently there was more death around and you always experienced it close up and personal. Wakes were events for all, bodies were laid out at home for all to see. But even then as the years passed some saw the commercialism opportunities with funerals and mourning. Burials at churchyards with the priest meeting the group at the lychgate ( licce is Old English for corpse) and the wearing of black for mourners started to develop.
But at this time and in the centuries up to the 18th everyone shared in the rituals. 'Dole' was customarily a penny plus food given to the mourners often even in the church or the churchyard. A good feed at the send off a sign of wealth and importance in the community. Effigies developed including the gruesome but fascinating cadaver tomb showing worms and skeletons. Up till this time ghosts of the departed were believed and welcomed.
Then came Henry VIII and the Reformation. Ghosts were demonic visitations. The Calvinists then set out their idea that there was no point in Purgatory or praying for the dead as it all questionned God's overall judgement. Death increased still with The Plague during the 1660s - where Bills of Mortality at least put figures on numbers. Even today local authorities must have epidemic mass body disposal plans.
Mortality especially amongst young children was still high.There was disease and of course again poverty. Folklore helped to set death within the lives of those left.
Slowly medicine grew as did Wills to mark down your life for others. But as usual it was mostly the rich who could provide better for their families. Paupers graves were (and still are) used.
What about the bodies? Well burial was foremost but there was of course the need for cadavers. Grave robbers, or Resurrectionists (sack 'em up 'men') could make money from the dead and medical schools needed bodies.
Middle classes wanted better and more elaborate funerals and Charles Dickens in the 19th century moved the whole idea along with the Victorian etiquette of mourning. Queen Victoria made it her life to mourn for Prince Albert and degrees of widowhood were of course imposed on women. Men could get away with a black armband.
Funeral professionals moved us to what we take for normal today. Undertakers, services, crematorium. All increased and took death from the personal space of the home to somewhere 'out of sight'. Chapel of Rest was a new introduction to display the body in a good state.
War of course changed it all. Millions dying in the Great War were perhaps covered by introducing mass ceremonies of Remembrance. The Cenotaph. 2 minute silence at 11 am on 11 Nov. All sanctify death but mask the horror of it. Grief is exposed as when Princess Diana died in 1997. The outpouring from the public stood in marked comparison to the Royal Family hidden away although who could not think it was a terrible idea to make her two sons walk through London's streets following their mother's coffin.
Now where are we? Technology has brought great advances. Has it? When funeral 'selfies' are apparently a thing or you need a Death Digital manager to sort your Internet ghost when you die....
I read this quickly devouring the facts and pictures. Should be a standard read for all and the opener for families to discuss the realities of death. No good imagining it won't happen even if you plan to use resomation (water cremation) or promession (freezing and vibrating) which are both more environmentally friendly!
Whatever your thoughts having a 'good' death is something we must all consider as we live longer but maybe not better lives.

Traditions in Death and Burial by Helen Frisby is an intersting book. Its not too long a read and has some intersting facts about death and burial in England from Medievil times. The Author has well researched her topic and that shows in the writing.

I enjoyed reading this book although like others I found it disjointed and the photographs descriptions were not always beside the photos or they were splitting up sentences midway through paragraphs. (Not sure if it was because it was a ARC copy) .

Thanks to Netgalley and Osprey Publishing for the ARC. (My Review is my own opinion.)

I was given a copy of Traditions of Death and Burial by Helen Frisby from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is hard to review. I enjoyed what I read. I learned a few things. I enjoyed all the images throughout the book. But I feel like there are multiple things I had issue with. I enjoyed that the book was split up into sections but the organization of the sections was disjointed at times. I wanted more information. The book is quite short and I felt like it could have been doubled or tripled with more research. The book seems to have a surface level understanding of history outside of the specific topic that is being covered. And the structure of the book felt like a paper that was being published and not a book.

An interesting, enjoyable and well researched book. I liked the style of writing and I learned something new.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Very interesting! Death and burial traditions, mainly in England, from the Middle Ages until today. How customs have changed and which, sometimes very small, rituals are still followed.

This is a concise and fairly thorough history of English burial traditions. The information is organized in a manner I'm unaccustomed too seeing in a historical accounting causing the need to backtrack and reread several sections to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding the material. I feel some revisions could tie it together and help it flow better. However, I feel a great deal of research went into this book. I found the book itself to be very interesting and learned several things I never knew were common practices. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

This book is about the traditions around death and burial in English history. While a short book, 93 pages, it is rich in detail and research.

I really enjoyed this book because of how detailed it was. I am from the USA so this discussed history that I have not read before. I learned a lot from this book and appreciate the author providing further reading (especially since they were not USA authors).

Overall, this book was quite fascinating. I recommend it for anyone interested in death and the history around it.

*ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.*

I loved this book! I recently completed a masters which include elements of culture traditions, archaeology and death so this book was right up my alley. Firstly, it must be noted that the book is a concise history of English traditions of death from the medieval period to the present. Therefore, the book is more specialised than what the title may suggest. That being said the book was informative, easy to read and not very long, it took me only a few hours to read.

What I have learnt from this book is that there is a connection with the occurrence of an early death, as found in medieval times though infections, plague etc, and customs to look after the body and their soul by the living and between a life long lived, as found in the present where people are more likely to die from old age related diseases and therefore having a hands off approach to the body. What this has done from particularly the World Wars onwards has left people emotionally unsatisfied in their griefing as they do not go through the griefing process , or ritual practice, of caring for the body and soul of the departed loved one. Due to this cultural change we see a return to the old days in present times, as people reconnect with the dead through acts like Remembrance Day, individual focused funerals and marking a death date each year.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced electronic readers version of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review for Traditions of death and burial by Helen Frisby
Can be read and reviewed on NetGalley for free (at time of review) .
This was quite an interesting read and I discovered quite a few good facts that I hadn't previously known about. I would have liked it to go into more detail about more earlier burials and the process. I wasn't a fan of the layout which I found quite confusing but this may have just been down to my device so I havent included this in my rating but may be something for the publisher to look into in case it is on their side. This book isn't for everyone as can be quite gruesome but that is obviously to be expected due to the title. I can't really say there was a wow factor but it was quite an interesting and good read overall and would recommend to fans of history and of books that look into death and burials. Rated 3/5

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First, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC.

This is a very interesting book that details the history of death and burials from 1066 to today in the UK. Much of it is relatable to practices and history here in the US as well.

Helen Frisby has done much research and I enjoyed the pictures/illustrations as well. This is a short book - less than 100 pages - but is a quick and enjoyable history lesson and does give one food for thought not only for how you wish for your own burial when the time comes but what the future may hold.

This is not an sad, morbid or depressing book but a very interesting one. An enjoyable read.

I found this very interesting and enjoyed reading about how our ancestors buried their dead. I would have liked a dive further into the past but it kind of just brushed past traditions pre 1600.

My thanks to the Publishers and Netgalley.
Well, I can't say this was unexpected. It was advertised as English customs. So it is. Everything is much as expected.
I was drawn to this because burial customs freak me out. I don't like it, and I don't do it. I don't do funerals. They are weird. I don't care about that dead body. It's a husk. That pile of decaying meat is not who I once loved. They are gone. That's just a meat suit. I do understand that some people don't understand my way of thinking, but I don't care. I don't understand theirs.
I don't know when or how it happened, but one day in my teens I realized that I wasn't afraid of dying, "although I would prefer a peaceful death!" But dead is a part of life. However ...I had read too many books that had people digging up dead bodies and putting them on display. Yes, I'm talking about archeologists! This is NOT amusing! Heck, for me it's just downright disturbing!
I once had a kind of agreement with my daughter. If I die here in Lewis and Clark county, then someone needs to haul my carcass as close to Missoula as possible. Thing is that I knew our county coroner "Mickey Nelson." I'd dealt with him at work. I was terrified that I would die early and he would be " LOOKING over me. " It's a fear. Through my last job, I knew everyone in town. It's the capital of Montana. People in power are strange. The strangest of all are those with little power who think they're more powerful. He finally died. Yay! Now I can die in peace! Oh yeah, also,.my daughter won't be charged with hauling a dead body over county lines! She would have too! That gal is too much like me! This thing of displaying the bodies in the parlor is messed up. I'm very much with the people who believe that internment should be within 24 to 48 hours! Otherwise? 😝 Yuck! Matter of fact, these gravehunters as I call them can fuck the right off! Me? Cremation, and toss me in the ocean or a great river. If you can't? Flush me.down the toilet! Just don't let me be an exhibit. Those poor Egyptian mummies. I feel awful about that. I know it's all.dead meat, but they once lived and loved. Nobody should be a display.
My main takeaway from this book? People worry too much about honoring the dead. Worry about the living and who you now have. If you honor the dead, then you've already blown it.

Helen Frisby and done some very detailed research for this book. She has thoroughly gone into detail starting from 1066 up to current day and beyond. Reading the book will give you the insight into what traditions have survived and why we deal with death as we do. And what we did in the past. Definitely not a morbid book. Just interesting facts.
A good insight into British history.

Death is inevitable but it can be both expected and unexpected. This is a fascinating look at the history and the outlook of burials and death from medieval years to the now. This was a fascinating, thought invoking book and I am glad to have read it.I have been to a lot of funerals in my 29 years and in those years I have wondered why viewing the body was a thing we did. I thought it was gruesome in a way but I understand that it also brings closure to many.

This book may not be for all but that's okay. Death is a tricky subject. Grief is an even harder subject. In the end, we all will die and that's hard to grasp but mortality is fleeting. Live your life happily.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Osprey/Shire Publishing for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a short, concise look at burial practices in England only. It seems well researched. I found it interesting but nothing to unexpected. Seemed pretty focused on the protestant side and didn't talk much about other sects of religions. 3 stars