''A beautifully written and thought provoking journey'' Professor Sue Black, author of All That Remains History is dominated by A-list deaths: queens beheaded; archdukes assassinated. But what about everyone else? How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones - and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end? Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From the death-watchers of the Middle Ages to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear, by way of plague pits, grave-robberies and wakes, historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped - and been shaped by - society. A groundbreaking new work of social history, No Ordinary Deaths paints a rich picture of the lives of our forebears, skilfully bringing the lost art of death to life today.

Autorentext
Molly Conisbee is a social historian and visiting research fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. She has a PhD from the University of Bristol and has spent the last ten years researching the social history of death and mourning. Conisbee is also a bereavement counsellor, has curated walks on the history of death around the country and has written for the Guardian and Ecologist

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'A beautifully written and thought provoking journey' Professor Sue Black, author of All That Remains

'There surely won't be a better history of the subject than Conisbee's' Literary Review

'Richly researched ... an intimate chronology' TLS

The lost art of 'dying well' was common knowledge to our ancestors - who, living closer to death than we do, had an intimate and integrated relationship with the afterlife. For centuries, cycles of death, dying and disposal have shaped society, from the death-watchers of the Middle Age to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear.

Ranging from the plague pit to the grave-robbery, from consecrated ground to the hangman's drop, No Ordinary Deaths is a groundbreaking work of social history which asks: how did our ancestors live, and die? How might the old ways help prepare us for our own ends?