All the Living and the Dead

Resumen del libro

'This is an absorbing and important book, seeking out stories so many shy away from and telling them with such respect, humanity, heart and, yes, wit. Without exaggeration, an awe-inspiring achievement' Nigella Lawson 'A gentle book and, like death itself, sometimes an unexpectedly kind one' - Neil Gaiman We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts.

Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look? Fuelled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending 62 lives.

She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear. Through Campbell s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death. 'Campbell is a gorgeous writer, capturing the exquisite pathos and gallows humour found in folks who spend their lives working with the dead' - Caitlin Doughty, New York Times bestselling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Biografía del autor

Hayley Campbell nació en Inglaterra y vivió veinte años en Australia antes de trasladarse a Londres. Ha escrito para BuzzFeed, WIRED, Empire, VICE/VICE Sports, New Statesman, McSweeney's, The Comics Journal, The Guardian, GQ, Esquire y Observer Magazine. Como redactora de reportajes en BuzzFeed, su trabajo tuvo millones de lectores, entre los que destaca su artículo sobre los Doves Type, una historia sobre locos victorianos, traición y algún tipo de plomo en el fondo del Támesis. En 2014, Harper Design publicó su libro The Art of Neil Gaiman, una biografía autorizada y profusamente ilustrada de Gaiman y su obra. Presenta el podcast Unpopped para la BBC. Vive en Highgate (Londres), cerca del cementerio.