Outside the Box

'Telling stories is fundamental to enabling people to find meaning in life and its losses. By bringing together so many people's first-hand experiences of death and dying with the wisdom and knowledge of those who work in the "death industry", this excellent book enables us to prepare better for the end of our own life's journey and make our own 'departures' as good as possible - for us and for those we love and who care for us. It is a book not just for the bereaved and dying but, as the title rightly says, for the living too.' Julia Samuel, psychotherapist, speaker and author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass / 'Nothing can fully prepare us for death, but this fabulous book is as close as we'll get. More than any other book I've read on the subject, and I've read many, this gives you directions and permission to have the death you want, either for yourself or for someone you love. The shared stories of death are wise, moving, useful and sometimes funny, and the expert commentaries offer excellent advice without being too prescriptive. Of course, we may not get the death we imagined - it can be a messy and unpredictable business. But this book gave me the sense of joining in and contributing to the most important conversation we may ever have. We are all going to die, but how we do it really matters. So let's start listening and talking...' Phil Hammond, NHS doctor, broadcaster, writer and comedian