I read a real lot, and I like to plug books that I think are good. Here's a few... 'Cemetery Stories: haunted graveyards, enbalming secrets, and the life of a corpse after death' by Katherine Ramsland (Harper 2001). 'Stiff: the curious life of human cadavers' by Mary Roach (Penguin 2004). And the one I'm reading right now, 'Necropolis: London and its dead' by Catherine Arnold (Pocket Books, 2006). Also, from my bookshelves, 'The Melbourne General Cemetery' by Don Chambers (Hyland House, 2003); 'Death and Architecture' by James Stevens Curl (Sutton 2002); 'The Dominion of the Dead' by Robert Pogue Harrison (University of Chicago Press 2003); 'The American Way of Death' by Jessica Mitford (Simon and Schuster 1963); 'Cemeteries: Our Heritage' by Celestina Sagazio (National Trust of Australia 1999); and 'The Loved One' by Evelyn Waugh (Penguin 1948). Can you suggest some more?
P.S. Yes, that broom is holding my head up.
Another suggestion: Mike Parker-Pearson (2001) The Archaeology of Death and Burial, Texas A&M University Press.
ReplyDeleteIt's very well-written and readable, with lots of interesting examples of funerary practices and a review of the reburial & repatriation issue.