A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards

A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards by Peter Ross is a compelling journey through some of the world’s most fascinating graveyards. Far from being just places of death, Ross reveals them as vital and enduring repositories of stories, history, art, and even humour. He takes readers from the haunting beauty of Flanders Fields, echoing with the memory of lost soldiers, to the tranquil resting place of Kensal Green, soaking in the city’s history. Ross’s exploration extends to melancholy islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries, each burial ground providing a unique window into how societies remember their dead.

WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021

A FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In his absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries. This is a considered and moving book on the timely subject of how the dead are remembered, and how they go on working below the surface of our lives. - Hilary Mantel

Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book. - The Guardian

The pages burst with life and anecdote while also examining our relationship with remembrance. - Financial Times (best travel books of 2020)

Among the year's most surprising "sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View. In a year with so much death, it may have initially seemed a hard sell, but the author's humanity has instead acted as a beacon of light in the darkness. - The Sunday Times

Fascinating... Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable. - The Observer

Ross has written [a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds. - Evening Standard (Best New Books of Autumn 2020)

One of the non-fiction books of the year. - The i Paper (2020 Best Books for Christmas)

Brilliant. - Stylist (Best Christmas books for Christmas 2020)

Never has a book about death been so full of life. James Joyce and Charles Dickens would've loved it - a book that reveals much gravity in the humour and many stories in the graveyard. It also reveals Peter Ross to be among the best non-fiction writers in the country. - Andrew O'Hagan

His stories are always a joy. - Ian Rankin

I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross. - Robert Macfarlane

A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the people who love them, dazzlingly told. - Denise Mina

A phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book. - Frank Turner

A walk through the graveyards of Britain guided by one of the most engaging wordsmiths willing to take you by the hand. - The Big Issue (Best Books 2020)

A celebration of life and of love. It confronts our universal fate but tends towards a comforting embrace of mortality. It is also imbued with something deeply moving. - The Herald

Beautifully written and strangely life affirming. - Norman Blake