THIS issue The Green Funeral Company’s Rupert Callender is looking forward to his book being published.
THINGS are about to get strange for me right now, as my book will have, by the time this column is published, be well and truly launched and out there, warts, boasts, confessions, angry denunciations and descriptions of grief and courage, everything that form the basis of “What Remains? Life, death and the human art of undertaking.” Much of the tone of what I have written, even some of the actual stories will be familiar to the readers of this column, but what won’t be is the story of what actually led me to becoming a radical undertaker, certainly not in the angry detail with which I have documented it. Reactions to the book so far have talked about its brave raw honesty, but at this point of human history, when you are given a chance to say something out loud to the public, it seems a terrible betrayal not to be as truthful as one can, however that truth may rattle some establishment cages. I hope. And I must take this opportunity to publicly thank all the families, many of whom live amongst us, who have been generous enough to allow me to tell the stories of their losses, just as they were generous enough to allow myself and Claire into their moments of terrible intimate suffering. They have inspired me for the last 23 years, and everything about the way we grew and shaped our practice has been taught to us by the families we have helped. They have shaped me, probably in ways they can’t imagine. So begins a round of appearances at bookshops around the country, small book festivals, lots of podcasts, because as you can imagine, death is a topic well covered through the medium of podcasts. I have even done my first festival appearance followed by a session signing books, truly a surreal dream come true for someone who always wanted to be a writer. But I remain an undertaker who writes, not a writer who undertakes, and I will be continuing to serve my community as best I can in the way I do, by balancing these two things perfectly, with the help of my colleague Claire Burton. One vocation feeds the other of course, without my undertaking, without my childhood trauma, I would not have had such a strange life which stumbled me into my vocation and given me such a rewarding job. My door is open to you all. So look out for local appearances around the West Country if you would like to come and hear me read or be interviewed then I am due to speak at Dartington at some point, but of course what I would really like you to do is buy a copy, either direct from my most excellent publishers Chelsea Green, or your local bookshop including the fabulous Dartington bookshop on the High Street, genuinely one of the best bookshops I have been into in years. Of course it is available from bigger chains, including Waterstones and the dreaded Mr Bezos online Department store, (you just can’t escape his retail gravitational pull) and my desire for you to buy my book is not based on a hunger for riches; nobody gets a decent income from writing books except J K Rowling and Dan Brown, but I really want you to hear what I have to say. And as you probably know by now, I do have a fair bit to say. “What Remains? Life, death and the human art of undertaking.” Is available from www.chelseagreen. com and all good bookshops and probably a couple of crap ones too. l Visit www.thegreenfuneralcompany. co.uk or email enquiry@ thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk or call 07759 890 639.