Ashes To Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer

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As is noted by radical undertaker Ru Callender in What Remains?, the UK funeral industry can be a expensive minefield. Ashes to Admin shows the consequences of the costly world of funerals. To be responsible for a funeral increasingly can cause people to get into debt. Funeral poverty is a growing issue, and can be one of the reasons why people will receive a Section 46 funeral; families can simply not afford it. A huge amount of shame comes with not being able to give family member a ‘proper’ send off. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: History Makers: Female Writers Dominate the 2023 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award Shortlist What happens if you die without family or money? The answer to this very three-in-the-morning question is that Evie, or someone like her, will step in and arrange your funeral.

Ashes To Admin By Evie King | Used | 9781915306302 | World of Ashes To Admin By Evie King | Used | 9781915306302 | World of

King makes you consider the pros and cons of age. Referring to one of her people ‘ She had evidently, at 99 years old, outlived everyone. A downside to longevity that people sometimes don’t consider, and something that is striven for blindly in our life-at-all-costs culture.’ This really jumped out at me, as I often feel that people focus on lifespan and not the value and quality of life we have. Moving out of London to the seaside, Evie found herself needing a job, and ended up working for a local council. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find UsImagine having that sentence said to you. And then imagine it actually being pertinent. Welcome to Evie King’s world. Death is something we all have in common so I'm always up for a book about it and this one (obviously) has it in (gravedigger) spades. It's a poignant, sometimes difficult, bizarre, and yet incredibly uplifting read. Evie King is a council worker charged with sorting out Section 46 funerals - funerals for those with no one or no one able or willing to do so on their behalf. Alongside dealing with the standard complaints we expect the council to deal with (bin collections, noise, dog poo, etc), she sees humanity, life, and death in all its strangeness. It's a job that encompasses plenty of persistent detective work, grief counseling, the obvious (and not so obvious) admin, and a tonne of empathy. For further proof of the nature of the book, consider the reviewers chosen and whose comments are printed on the covers and inside the book:

Ashes To Admin by Evie King | Waterstones

Knowing absolutely zero about council funerals aside from the negative term 'a paupers funeral' the subject matter of this book caught my eye. Its not often people talk about a good death, planning your funeral or what happens when you cant afford to pay for a loved ones funeral. Evie King goes to great lengths to dispel any negative view points over what a section 46 funeral looks like and she goes even further to give the people handed into her care the kind of funeral we might all wish for. As someone who works at a Council and studied death culture at university, it was probably inevitable that I would find Ashes to Admin immensely enjoyable.

Evie is a local council worker charged with carrying out Section 46 funerals under the Public Health Act. Or to put it in less cold, legislative language; funerals for those with nobody around, willing or able to bury or cremate them.