Grief & Loss

Together with Billy, help your child navigate their way through the loss of a loved one through sharing memories, stories and pictures. Billy's Family Bereavement is a gentle illustrated story that helps children understand the death of a loved one through simple language and relatable examples from nature. Designed to encourage conversations about grief, loss, feelings and remembrance, it provides...

Not only practical, it's also somehow a great meditation on death. Telling me all sorts of practical stuff in a way I can bear to read. More than bear, I loved it. - PHILIPPA PERRY A vitally important book for anyone who thinks they might die at some point. Do not buy this book if you are already dead. It's...

A compassionate guide for leading suicide bereavement support groups. When we're grieving the death of someone loved, we need the support and compassion of our fellow human beings. Grief support groups provide a wonderful opportunity for this very healing kind of support. This Understanding Your Suicide Grief Support Group Guide is for professional or lay caregivers who want to start...

A tale of love, loss and laughter, this life-affirming memoir describes one woman's determination to survive unbearable grief - and get back into running - one step at a time. Lisa didn't think anything could be more devastating than the death of her beloved husband Graham. But then she lost her sister and father too - all in the space...

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being alive. The bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller, now in a beautiful new hardcover gift edition. The Wild Edge of Sorrow is described as "one of the best books on grief I have ever read. It helped me...

We have lost the ability to deal with death. Most of our friends and beloved relations will die in a busy hospital in the care of strangers, doctors and nurses they have known at best for a couple of weeks. They may not even know they are dying, victims of the kindly lie that there is still hope. They are...

A profound and fascinating exploration of death and the afterlife! Christian and other religious beliefs, rituals from around the world, quests for immortality, scientists' conclusions, ghosts, and more! What happens when we die? Many view it as a mystery, but there are tantalizing clues to be found in the Bible and other religious scriptures, scientific findings, historical writings, literature, reports...

Animal Death is a complex, uncomfortable, depressing, motivating, and sensitive topic. For those scholars participating in human-animal studies, it is accompanied by the concept of 'life,' the ground upon which their studies commence, whether those studies are historical, archaeological, social, philosophical, or cultural. It is a tough subject to face, but as this volume demonstrates, one at the heart of...

A darkly comedic journey into the science of aging—where ethics are irrelevant, the studies are a sales pitch, and the "world's oldest living people" all turn out to be dead. Our morbid fascination with death and dying has created an opening for all manner of skullduggery in the science of aging—an area of study that Morbid reveals to be rife...

‘Fascinating… written with clarity and rooted in deep affection' Observer ‘A timely and balanced book that offers a unique insight into a debate whose relevance is only going to grow’ The Times A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown. 'Elegant' Sunday Telegraph 'Engrossing' i News 'Moving' The...

Thoughtful, beautiful, incredibly necessary. People need to read this book, especially if they feel a resistance to. I wish everyone would. — Sofie Hagen Uncompromising, anguished, combative: culture wars have victims, and this is an agonising story told with honesty and passion. — Richard Beard An intimate, beautifully told memoir — Elinor Cleghorn When my third child was born, I...

‘Extraordinary. It is about death, but I can think of few books which have such life. It shows us what love is.’ Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny ‘There is no one quite like Naja Marie Aidt’ Valeria Luiselli ‘Devastating, angry, challenging, fragmented and filled with the beautiful hope that the love we have...

Dr Chloe helped me understand how to grieve and keep living, how to find the light in the darkest of days. I know this book will be of great comfort to many. — Zoe Ball Nobody gets through life free from the pain of loss. However, we aren’t very good at processing what grief does to us. If left unchecked,...

The official companion to The Wild Edge of Sorrow offers reflection prompts, timely exercises, and rituals of renewal for moving with grief and loss from bestselling author Francis Weller. The Wild Edge of Sorrow blew me away. I underlined things on nearly every page. — Anderson Cooper, All There Is Inspired by Francis Weller's revelatory bestseller, The Wild Edge of...

The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917's temporary exhibition Passchendaele, Landscape of War highlights the effect of the ruined landscape on the course of the Battle of Passchendaele. We show how both armies were forced to adapt their tactics, attack methods, and logistics to take account of the landscape, and we examine the enormous impact, both physical and psychological, of the resulting...

You can't attend your own funeral. But you can have a blast planning it! Death is scary—but planning your funeral doesn't have to be! It's Your Funeral! will help demystify death, decrease your anxiety, and put the fun back in funeral, whether that means a drunken bacchanal or a somber reflection on just how great you were. Every stage of...

You can’t move past the breakup. You feel stuck in cycles of rumination and pain. This helpful guide provides brand-new therapeutic tools to revolutionise the way we overcome loss, and seek and welcome love, within and outside of ourselves. We know heartbreaks are inevitable. We also know that somehow it is within our power to break free of the suffering...

'[A] rollicking, globe-trotting death adventure...' - The Brooklyn Rail What if we responded to death...by throwing a party? Journalist Erica Buist travels to seven death festivals around the world: Nepal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sicily, Japan, Mexico, and New Orleans. By the time Erica Buist's father-in-law Chris was discovered, upstairs in his bed with his book resting on his chest, he had...

A quest for belonging through the forsaken landscapes of Britain When Steven Lovatt's grandmother died, he lost not only a beloved family member but also his last link to the way of life she had represented—rooted in place, socially democratic, ecologically rich. Cut loose from the past and confronted with a present missing even the birds of his childhood, Steven's...

From the Sunday Times bestselling authors of The Little Book of Humanism A humanist funeral allows us the freedom to remember and celebrate the life of someone in exactly the way we want to and—as the most popular alternative to a religious ceremony—put us more closely in touch with the precious nature of life. In a beautiful collection of insights...

Reassuring and helpful strategies to guide you through your grief Grief is a natural reaction to loss, but in some cases, it can be devastating, causing a loss of direction which can impact our relationships and work. This practical guide will help you to regain a sense of control and offers tried and tested strategies for adjusting to life without...

THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'The best memoir you will read all year' — Nick Hornby 'A triumph – a meditation on writing, suicide, guilt and silence' — The Guardian 'A grief memoir in the vein of Joan Didion’s Blue Nights' — New York Times 'This is memoir perfection … I adored it' — Cariad Lloyd The internationally bestselling author...

A guided journal with writing prompts, meditations and practices to transform the heartache and pain of grief and loss into love and resilience, the mindful way. Grief is a natural reaction to loss and the mourning process can be a difficult and stressful experience. Time alone does not heal our wounds – it is what we do with our time...

The zombie has shuffled with dead-eyed, remorseless menace from its beginnings in obscure folklore and superstition to become the dominant image of the undead today. In contemporary visions of global apocalypse, such as the films 28 Days Later, I Am Legend, and World War Z, as well as the phenomenally successful TV series The Walking Dead, the zombie has reached...

In September 2019, Mavis Eccleston was acquitted of murdering her 81-year-old husband Dennis. Dennis had terminal cancer and had taken an overdose of pain medication to end his own life. The turmoil that followed for Mavis and her family sheds light on the brutal and ignored impact of the UK's failure to legalise assisted dying. Why does the UK abandon...

'If Dolly Alderton, Glennon Doyle, and Elizabeth Day had a love child, this is the writer they’d produce.' — Laura Jane Williams, author and journalist. Stylist's Must Read Book for 2022 Evening Standard's Faces to Watch in 2022 Shame is a monster that grows inside us. We all have the monster; it's what we decide to do with it that...

A poignant and introspective memoir from Irish journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease – a man whose voice was so synonymous with his career faced losing it completely. Yet knowing he had just a short time left with family and friends, what emerged was a great sense of resilience and motivation...

Over the course of seven difficult years, Miriam Mulcahy lost her mother, father, and sister, each grief threatening to drown her. But instead of going under, she discovered the lessons of the sea, letting the water teach her how to get through anything in life: one breath builds on another, another stroke, another kick, and you will get home. This...

'Moving and inspiring, courageous and true: real art. Just reading her is pleasure' Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun What happens when you realise that you must change your life? When — after years of hiding in routine, shrinking from opportunity, and sleepwalking through your days — you know you want more. How do you remake your life without breaking...

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The Azaylia Foundation. Strong is the moving and heartbreaking memoir from celebrity campaigner, endurance athlete, and father of an angel, Ashley Cain. It charts his daughter's birth and the fight for her life when she was diagnosed with leukaemia at 7 weeks old. Ashley reflects...

PRE-ORDER NOW: MURDER ISN'T EASY: THE FORENSICS OF AGATHA CHRISTIE, THE FASCINATING NEW BOOK BY CARLA VALENTINE 'Part memoir and part manifesto, Valentine's book lifts the lid on daily life in the mortuary . . . Valentine bares her own soul . . . with visceral attention to physical and emotional detail' - Wendy Moore, Guardian 'A fascinating portrait ....

When her beloved small dog died, Bel Mooney was astonished at the depth of her ongoing sorrow. Sharing her loss online and in a newspaper article brought a deluge of responses, spurring Bel to explore these feelings further. Why do humans mourn pets? Can animals themselves grieve and do they have souls? In Goodbye, Pet & See You in Heaven,...

How do you 'prepare' for bereavement? Religious faith can help, as can ritualised codes of dress and behaviour that recognise different stages of mourning. But many of us feel singularly unprepared when we lose someone. No one 'theory' can soothe the bereaved, precisely because grief so strips us naked and profoundly wounds us. Nothing pre-cooked helps. No quick fix, no...

An award-winning classicist turns to Greek tragedies for the wisdom to understand the damage caused by suicide and help those who are contemplating suicide themselves. "Remarkable, brave and compassionate."—Rowan Williams, New Statesman In Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus the Tyrant, a messenger arrives to report that Jocasta, queen of Thebes, has killed herself. To prepare listeners for this terrible news, he announces,...

A coming-of-age debut novel, by the mother of Zadie Smith, about a young Jamaican girl faced with the trauma of immigration, estrangement from her family, and the emotional upheaval of moving to London in the 1960s. The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna Mullings, a teenage Jamaican girl uprooted from her island following the sudden...

I think the world should read it — LISA TADDEO, AUTHOR OF THREE WOMEN A Guardian Book of the Year After the unexpected death of her partner, Carolina Setterwall found herself bereft and rudderless at thirty-six, faced with the seemingly impossible task of raising her son alone. In this remarkable Swedish memoir about grief and guilt, memory and intimacy, she...

A meditation on the social, political, and philosophical questions of ageing. A few years ago, Didier Eribon's mother began to lose her physical and cognitive autonomy. After several months of resistance, Eribon and his brothers were compelled to place her in a nursing home. A few short weeks later, his mother passed away. In The Life, Old Age, and Death...

Can our forebears help us face complex questions of dying, now? 'I have quite a bit of understanding of white man's ways but it is difficult for me to understand this one'. A Senate committee investigation of Australia's Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995, the first legislation in the world which allowed doctors to actively assist patients...

An incredibly useful take on facing grief as a young person - CARIAD LLOYD Brilliantly, brilliantly written … Packed with clarity, curiosity and courage - FELIX WHITE It turned on so many lights for me … What a profoundly helpful book - KATHRYN MANNIX Grief does something particular when it hits you young. This book is a moving exploration of...

Spirit Speaker is a compassionate and straightforward guide to the spiritual process of death and spirit communication. This book answers the most common questions asked by the author’s clients over her decades of work as a spirit speaker and psychic medium. It presents simple techniques for helping loved ones cross over and shares practices to honour our beloved dead and...

Reveals how the continuity of consciousness beyond the physical body can be objectively demonstrated Explores 15 promising avenues of post-materialist scientific investigation currently underway. Provides a succinct account of the experience of transition to the “next life” and what one might expect when one arrives there. Explains how materialism has prevented us from realising a deeper understanding of the nature...

A wonderfully quixotic, charming and surprisingly uplifting travelogue which sees Jack Cooke, author of the much-loved The Treeclimbers Guide, drive around the British Isles in a clapped-out forty-year-old hearse in search of famous—and not so famous—tombs, graves and burial sites. Along the way, he launches a daredevil trespass into Highgate Cemetery at night, stumbles across the remains of the Welsh...

A haunting family memoir about what we owe our ancestors and our descendants, from an unforgettable new voice. 'Part of me knew what the hungry ghosts wanted all along, what they still want. It is not vengeance. No, they want something else, but we refuse to listen. They want us to face up to our broken obligations.' Every spring during...

In this spellbinding memoir, popular CNN anchor Zain Asher pays tribute to her mother’s strength and determination to raise four successful children in the shadow of tragedy. Awaiting the return of her husband and young son from a road trip, Obiajulu Ejiofor receives shattering news. There’s been a fatal car crash, and one of them is dead. In Where the...

A powerful, poetic, and moving memoir of family, violence, and estrangement from a stunning new literary voice. After Michelle Tom's house was damaged by a deadly magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011, she and her young family suffered through another 10,000 aftershocks before finally relocating to the stability of Melbourne, Australia. But soon after arriving, Michelle received...

A powerful memoir of love, loss and friendship from four widows of the 9/11 terrorist attack. What would you do if, one glorious September morning, your husband were to die suddenly, when all he had done was go to work, and you didn't even wake up properly to say goodbye? For Patricia, Julia, Claudia and Ann, four thirty-something women whose...

Australia's bravest and most honest writer explores the devastating aftermath of her elderly mother's decision to end her own life. After is a poignant exploration by Nikki Gemmell, whose world changed forever in October 2015 when the body of her elderly mother was found and it became clear she had decided to end her own life. After the immediate shock...

In the long run, we're all dead. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure. The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated, and even filed away in a lawyer's office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs, and nether regions have embarked on...

We tend to believe we have agency over our bodies, our minds and even our deaths. Yet emerging science challenges our assumptions of mastery: at the microscopic level, the cells in our bodies facilitate tumours and attack other cells, with life-threatening consequences. In this revelatory book, Natural Causes, Barbara Ehrenreich argues that our bodies are a battleground over which we...

Aged nine, Joss came home from school to discover her father's suicide. She's never gotten over it. This is the true story of Joss, 13, who is angry and out of control. At the age of nine, Joss finds her father’s dead body. He has committed suicide. Then her mother remarries, and Joss bitterly resents her step-father, who abuses her...

“Beautifully written, complex, provocative, painful, genuine...an unforgettable memoir.” —ROXANE GAY “Wonderfully lyrical and uncomfortably honest in a way that is so rare, yet so needed.” —JENNY LAWSON “Disturbing and profound, this intimate book also reveals the sometimes-labyrinthine nature of the bonds that unite people in love...A provocative and memorable work.” —Kirkus Reviews After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage,...

When her father becomes gravely ill on holiday in Budapest, Alexandra Fuller rushes to join her mother at his bedside, where they see out his last days together and then carry his ashes back to their farm in Zambia. A master of time and memory, Fuller moves seamlessly between the days and months following her father's death. She contends with...

‘A deeply moving and riveting memoir.’ Arianna Huffington ‘An incredible personal story.’ Don Cheadle This spellbinding memoir opens with a woman receiving shattering news that her husband and son have been in a terrible accident. In that instant, she becomes a widowed immigrant left to raise four children in a London neighbourhood beset by poverty and crime. Her struggle awakens...

When foster carer, Cathy Glass, is asked to foster Darcy-May, a two-day-old baby, she is very concerned. The baby is coming to her straight from hospital and will have no contact with her teenage mother, Haylea. Even more worrying, she will be brought to Cathy with a police escort, as it's vital her extended family don't know where she is....

Pre-order DREAM COUNT, the searing, exquisite new novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie now! A devastating essay on loss and the people we love from the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. 'Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel....

After enduring the loss of two babies in utero, Annie Anderson felt heartbroken, directionless, and alone in her grief. She wondered if she would ever experience joy again. The sense of loss experienced by Annie and her husband Rob was only compounded by the gaps within the healthcare system and the taboo nature (and misunderstandings) of grief and baby loss...

A suicide loss survivor tells her story. Standing on my Brother's Shoulders by Tara Lal recounts her childhood, which was battered by her father's mental illness and her mother's death when she was thirteen. Caught up in grief and despair, she developed a deep, caring bond with her charismatic and kind older brother Adam, who struggled silently with growing anxiety...

A stunning new memoir from national treasure Michael Rosen, exploring the role trauma—from chronic illness to the loss of a child—has played in his life, and how we can learn to live again in the aftermath of tragedy. The stunning new memoir from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Many Different Kinds of Love. A Guardian book of 2023A BBC...

A brilliant young neuroscientist explains how to preserve our minds indefinitely, enabling future generations to choose to revive us. Just as surgeons once believed pain was good for their patients, some argue today that death brings meaning to life. But given humans rarely live beyond a century — even while certain whales can thrive for over two hundred years —...

A sensation in the Flemish world, a spellbinding new talent explores the dark side of creativity through the stories of thirteen tragic architects. Bold Ventures resembles a pop version of Iain Sinclair's psychogeography or Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer's anti-biography of DH Lawrence — Olivia Laing, Guardian 'A marvel—a monument to human beings continuing to reach for the skies,...

Imagine having a secret so profound you're too afraid to tell your closest friends and family, or a final wish you need fulfilled before you can rest in peace. Enter Bill Edgar, a man who has made it his life's mission to ensure the last requests of the dying are carried out to the letter. In The Coffin Confessor, Bill...

Extraordinary . . . a profound and beautiful book . . . a moving meditation on grief and loss, but also a sparky celebration of joy, wonder and the miracle of love . . . Witty, wise, beautifully structured and written in clear, singing prose - Sunday Times Eighteen months before Kathryn Schulz's beloved father died, she met the woman...

WATERSTONES' BEST BOOKS OF 2023: BIOGRAPHY The last book from bestselling author and advocate Wendy Mitchell ‘This beautiful book will give hope and courage to many people. An uplifting and courageous read’ KATHRYN MANNIX 'Anyone who reads Mitchell’s work can only admire her passion, her energy and her extraordinary courage' SUNDAY TIMES Wendy Mitchell doesn’t fear anything anymore. After her...