It Tolls For Thee: A guide to celebrating and reclaiming the end of life

by Tom Morton

Overview

A funeral celebrant from the Shetland Islands reveals how celebrating mortality—and creating a personalized space for grief—enriches lives and gives meaning to death.

Part self-help, part memoir, this is a funny and thoughtful journey into the world of undertakers and death cafes, of pilgrimages and taboos . . .

After a close encounter with death, Tom Morton realized 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, humor, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786784797
Publisher:	Watkins Media
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	89,260
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Tom Morton is a Scottish writer, broadcaster, journalist, musician and funeral celebrant. He lives and works mainly in the Shetland Islands. Tom has written several books. His most recent publication, produced jointly with his son James, was Shetland: Cooking on the Edge of the World. He is currently hosting a weekly internet radio show called The Beatcroft Social. He blogs regularly about food, island life and music.

Table of Contents

Part I A Life in Death

1 Soylent Green Is Not People: An Introduction 3

2 Summer of the Black Suit 10

3 Dancing with the Widowmaker 18

4 Pratchett's Sword and a Horse Called Binky 43

5 Death on the Edge of the World: A Serious Undertaking 58

6 A Note on Pets 82

Part II The Saying of Goodbyes

7 Dust to Dust 91

8 Dead Man's Handle 127

9 Funerals for the Living and the Dead: Some Examples 147

10 In a Time of Dying: We Rock 207

11 Shomrim: Standing Witness 214

12 Telling the Story with Love: Patterns, Templates, Resources 226

Notes 259

Acknowledgements 265

Editorial Reviews

"This is an extraordinary and important book, both vitally topical and essentially timeless." - Stuart Maconie

"At the beginning, I’m happy to be drawn gently in, by about half way through, I’m starting to realise that, not only is this entertaining, but it’s important, and by the end I know it’s vital." - Tim Hayward

From the Publisher