In The Midst Of Life

This is a thoroughly useful, authoritative and compassionate book about the last taboo subject-death. In exploring our responses to death, it reveals a great deal about Australian society. There is grim humour in the practical details of burial in the days of pick and shovel-and a priest if you were lucky. Stories of elaborate Victorian mourning etiquette, of poignant personal histories recorded on gravestones, of vehement debates about cremation, and much more, make good reading. The authors-a