We live in a society where people struggle to look death in the eye. Death has become the territory of professionals and we rarely see a dead body, unless it is someone very close to us. Death has become hidden, and so more traumatic. This book shows that, if we start talking openly about death, it can change the way we live. It is a collection of stories and images about death, dying and bereavement. People from all walks of life share their experiences and what they have learned from accompanying others. Heartbreaking, angry, questioning and contradictory - laugh-aloud funny, even - the stories illuminate, inspire, reassure and inform. They are accompanied by commentaries from professionals working in end-of-life planning, health, bereavement and funeral care.

This is a book about Covid-19 as it happened, with all the fear, horror, losses, grief, chaos, revelations, frustrations and sheer heroism. It is also a book about the future - what we learned and didn't learn; what we hoped for when the lockdowns eased and we could believe there could be a future. It is a vivid, sometimes distressing, often uplifting and powerfully moving account of a nation's journey through a nightmare, told in the words of individuals describing their own and others' experiences and how they and their families and communities coped. We hear stories from many perspectives: the bereaved; the frontline workers; those still battling the long and disabling tail of the virus; the marginalised and vulnerable; the children and young people. These are voices that are rarely heard, talking of small acts of generosity, courage, private suffering and quiet endurance. Alongside, expert commentaries draw the themes together and offer further reading and resources. So many of us swore we would learn from the pandemic. This book will help us do so.