It Tolls For Thee

A funeral celebrant’s story about how celebrating death, and creating personalised space for grief, can enrich lives and give meaning to death.

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After a close encounter with death, Tom Morton realised he needed
a change of pace and perspective. He decided to become the only independent
funeral celebrant on the remote Shetland Islands, an unusual new profession that
would lead him on an extraordinary journey into the world of the dead. 

In a vivid narrative that reveals the fascinating realm of
the unspoken – from extraordinary undertakers and death cafés, to pilgrimages
and taboos – Tom quickly learns that death and speaking for the dead requires
you to think on your feet and often take a magpie approach to faith and
philosophy. From Humanism to hymns, Theravada Buddhism to Star Wars
theology, he discovers the importance of ritual, humour, and the empowering act
of trying to find words for something beyond language itself.

























This is an accessible and thought-provoking
guide to celebrating mortality. When grief must be an inevitable part of life, Tom
shows how we can mourn together in a way that feels appropriate to the life of
the one who has passed on, and ultimately cultivate a healthy attitude to our
own eventual demise.