What Remains? Life, Death and the Human Art of Undertaking

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I feel sorry for people who are bereaved and haven’t tripped’ … Callender at Sharpham Meadow. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian Talk about the world's best job! A DOUGHNUT SCIENTIST reveals how she is creating a healthier future for bakery... We are taken on a journey through Rupert's life, whilst getting a more detailed look at the industry of death and funerals. At one point he describes a funeral for a local homeless man, and says of a speech he gives after carrying the coffin through town, “I am a little preachy, but a good funeral should be anyway.” This is completely contrary to everything he’d been saying in the book till that point. It was gross how he’d used that funeral to rail against the society evil of gambling that this homeless man had as a vice during his life when the rest of the book discussed how funerals should be about the deceased, not a preachy sermon. Callender’s vocation came to him in an epiphanic flash, in his 20s, while he was watching daytime TV. Channel surfing, he stumbled across a programme featuring the writer Nicholas Albery, who founded the Natural Death Centre, a charity that informs the public of their rights around funerals and encourages them to get more involved. “I was just catapulted off the sofa. It was like: ‘Oh my God, I’m an undertaker,’” says Callender, before adding: “I was stoned at the time.”

This is the message running right through the book: death happens to all of us, and if you try to hide from that fact you’re simply storing up trouble. Ferne McCann looks cosy in a cardigan and beanie hat as she takes daughters Sunday, 6, and Finty, 4 months, to Winter Wonderland

A Note From the Publisher

If the average reader is like me, little is known of undertaking. We may have been involved with the last rites of a family member, but the funeral industry does their best to insulate families from the details of their business, if not also the funeral and memorial service specifics. So, in reading this book, one learns much, some of it quite surprising. For me, the biggest surprise was how little the industry is regulated in England, where the author lives and works. I have no idea how similar or different the funeral industry is in the United States. Danny Cipriani takes a cryptic swipe at wife Victoria just days after she was left 'devastated' seeing cosy pictures of him with his Strictly partner Jowita Przystal Lottie Tomlinson poses in a skimpy brown bikini in Abu Dhabi as her trip comes to a close and she heads to America

The practice of having official pallbearers] is all part of the emotional infantilising encouraged by the funeral industry, all part of being turned into an audience at one of the most significant moments in your family history, instead of being empowered as a family and a community.” I'm A Celebrity fans convinced Nella Rose will follow in Grace Dent's footsteps and be the next to QUIT the show It's a book destined to join the greats of counterculture nonfiction, like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Cosmic Trigger and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.' From luxury skincare to must-have make-up collections - get Christmas all wrapped up with dream gifts they'll love Callendar went all in on undertaking as a career, very much seat of his pants, but with the goals of speaking the truth of the deceased and building a community. The rest of the book details Callendar's growth in this field, from the early funerals to specific ones that challenged him and the creation of a partnership (and marriage) and eventually dissolution of the partnership with his ex wife Claire. A frequent counterpoint and focus of his ire is on the funerary industry as it exists in the United Kingdom. All this before a ending chapter about Callendar's part in a music/media festival with his heroes.Strictly Come Dancing's Vito Coppola continues to fuel speculation as he shares a steamy message to Ellie Leach amid romance rumours The book is read by the author himself, who I found unlikeable, appears bitter for his upbringing (which sounds like it was one of immense privilege) & is insulting of people who don’t agree with his ideas (“reptile brained” being one phrase that springs to mind).

Huge care goes into planning the service, which Callender almost always conducts himself (the retired vicars who do it for traditional firms are known in the trade as ‘crem cowboys’).Harry and Meghan are 'still hurt' about the delay in giving Archie and Lilibet their Prince and Princess titles, Omid Scobie claims

And, Callender says, bring the kids along; they need to be there. He should have been at his father’s funeral. “We still get people going: ‘I don’t know about bringing Johnny.’ And I say: ‘Did he love his grandmother?’ And they say: ‘He adored her – he’s really upset.’ And I say: ‘If you don’t bring him, let me tell you, there’s a good chance he’ll end up as an undertaker.’”Denise Richards takes her rarely seen daughter Eloise, 12, to the Hollywood Christmas Parade along with husband Aaron Phypers Princess Andre, 16, looks just like her famous mum Katie Price as she cuts a casual figure at PrettyLittleThing event This is I guess the memoir of Rupert Callender, a man who considers himself to be a 'punk' undertaker. So why do we continue with the maudlin rituals of the modern funeral? Partly religion, partly the history of funerals and family expectations and more.. This moving, angry and funny book isn't just about an odd career ushering people off to join the Silent Majority, but a beautiful guide to how to live, grieve and remember well.'