It seems a long time ago that I turned 70, in fact nearly ten years ago now, but since then I find myself thinking about death far more often.
Will this be the last time I change the car? Maybe this is the last suit I will buy. I don’t think I will be visiting Scotland again. Then there are all those funerals I seem to have to attend: one a month in 2017. Whereas for most of my life death has been a taboo subject for conversation, suddenly I discover that interest in the subject is much more widespread.
Accordingly, in the summer of 2018 I went into my favourite secular bookshop, an independent bookseller in Sidmouth. Heading straight for the ‘New Releases’ table, I was surprised to find an array of books about death and dying. Evidently the publishing world considered this a subject of topical interest too. Had society at last come to realise that this is something to be faced rather than feared? I had to find out...
