No Ordinary Deaths: A People's History of Mortality by Molly Conisbee #foliosociety OBSERVER 'Reading Genesis is alive

OBSERVER 'Reading Genesis is alive with questions of kindness

between this world and the next

St Barnabas's irascible Provost does not appreciate his forceful line of questioning

revealing the intricate dance of love and duty at the edge of an interstellar conflict

Lara Maiklem has been scouring the banks of the tidal Thames looking for objects – lost or discarded – that tell forgotten stories

No Ordinary Deaths: A People's History of Mortality by Molly Conisbee #foliosociety OBSERVER 'Reading Genesis is aliveHistory is dominated by A list deaths: queens beheaded; archdukes assassinated. But what about everyone else? How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end? Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From the death watchers of the Middle Ages to the pomp of Victorian