This book will be a great help and a real comfort to anyone going through a difficult time in their life - something that happens to us all sooner or later. * Dame Judi Dench * Mark Oakley is highly regarded as a writer, speaker and broadcaster on issues of faith, poetry and literature: It is extremely unusual to meet anyone who isn't a specialist who has such a subtle feeling for language. * Sir Andrew Motion, Former Poet Laureate * An exceptionally wide-ranging collection of verse, including some standard favourites, but much that is less well-known: Vera Arlett and Alden Nowlan for example, but also including poems in translation (Quevedo, Kaplinski, Hitomaro). The poems and short reflections are sandwiched between a collection of 46 suggested hymns, making this a book that any lay person could use to start planning a funeral. My only concern is that many of these poems would have to be read aloud by someone experienced at public speaking, or their impact will be lost. -- Kirsty Anderson * The Reader *