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A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards
- Author
- Peter Ross
- Narrator
- Peter Ross
- Publisher
- Headline
- Publish Date
- 3 September 2020
- Run Time
- 10 hours 22 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
'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
For readers of The Salt Path, Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane.
Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning writer Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths?
All of these sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.
So push open the rusting gate, push back the ivy, and take a look inside...
(P)2020 Headline Publishing Group Limited
Critics Review
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Absorbing . . . considered and moving.
Hilary Mantel
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Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.
The Observer
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The pages burst with life and anecdote while also examining our relationship with remembrance.
Financial Times
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Among the year's most surprising "sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View, Peter Ross's critically acclaimed ode to "the stories and glories of graveyards". 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
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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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
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I have nothing but admiration for his way to winkle out a story from the living as well as paying homage to the dead.
The Scotsman
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Ross has written [a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds.
Evening Standard
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A brilliant buy
Stylist
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A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the people who love them, dazzlingly told.
Denise Mina
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Beautifully written and strangely life affirming.
Norman Blake, Teenage Fanclub
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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
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It is not too fanciful to talk of the soul of A Tomb With A View. It is replete with stories but it echoes with something profound.
The Herald
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Scottish journalist Ross's meander around graveyards raises profound questions about the way in which we mourn
I News - Christmas Gift Guide 2020
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Peter Ross makes a fine contribution to the library of books about "being planted". . . I have nothing but admiration for his way to winkle out a story from the living as well as paying homage to the dead
The Scotsman’s Scottish Books of the Year
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Everyday humanity, an acknowledgement of how life continues in the presence of the dead. . . is writ large in A Tomb with a View, in Ross's encounters with tour guides, local historians, a gardener, a stonecutter, even a recent widow.
Prospect
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Ross's book is an engaging ramble among the gravestones and burial plots of Britain and Ireland
Irish Examiner
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I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross.
Robert Macfarlane
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His stories are always a joy.
Ian Rankin
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An evocative and uplifting exploration of cemeteries, where every headstone has a story to tell. . . 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 Book of The Day
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Ross' development into a sensitive and empathetic observer of social ritual has culminated in this treasure
The Big Issue
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Peter Ross
- Narrator
- Peter Ross
- Duration
- 10 hours 22 minutes
- Release Date
- 3 September 2020
- ISBN
- 9781472267818
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Headline
- Genre
- Sociology: death and dying, Travel writing, Social and cultural history
Synopsis
'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 . . . 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'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 TurnerFor readers of The Salt Path, Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane.Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning writer Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths?All of these sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath.So push open the rusting gate, push back the ivy, and take a look inside...(P)2020 Headline Publishing Group Limited
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