Happiness is home made

I was flattered when Emma Miller, the editor of Hood Magazine, asked me to take over their ‘Man at the Back’ feature for a couple of issues. Here’s my Christmas gift to you – it’s still not too late to make something, and by doing so, make someone feel very special!

Rites of Passage

Can you imagine attending your own funeral? The old joke is that it’s the best party you’ll never go to, but that may no longer be true.Last year, in his Channel 4 series Grayson Perry helped to create a ‘living funeral’ for Roch, a man who’d been living with Motor Neurone disease, and it was … Continue Reading

Speaking at Funerals

I saw a story the other day that took me aback a bit. Father Joseph Anthony Toal is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Motherwell and he found himself all over the papers when an instruction he’d sent to his clergy was leaked to a journalist. He even made the Daily Telegraph. He told his priests to refuse requests … Continue Reading

Griefcast

I was pleased to see that Cariad Lloyd’s podcast on death won three prizes at the British Podcast Awards last week. Griefcast first came to my attention in 2016, thanks to this article in The Guardian, and it’s since notched up more than 30 episodes. Lloyd is a 35-year-old actress, comedian and writer from London whose father died of pancreatic … Continue Reading