On Grief

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 sooth the bereaved, precisely because grief so strips us naked and profoundly wounds us. Nothing pre-cooked helps. No quick fix, no one-shot deal.

In this inspirational book, Peter J Conradi draws on literature, history and philosophy to present a broad array of different voices and perspectives on grief. His carefully chosen stories, excerpts and poems offer wisdom and consolation, but they also make us think, break down taboos and sometimes even find humour and light amidst the painful, bewildering reality of death.

Everyone's experience of grief is different, but reading of the myriad different ways in which others have approached it can, while not necessarily easing our grief, certainly help us feel less alone.

Peter J Conradi is an author and journalist, known as the official biographer of Iris Murdoch, whose essays and letters he also collected and edited, in separate volumes. He is the author of many books including: A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs (2019), Family Business: A Memoir (2019), and A Very English Hero: The Making of Frank Thompson (2012). He has written or reviewed for the TLS, New Statesman, FT, Spectator, Independent and The Guardian. Conradi has co-edited since 2007 the Transactions of the Radnorshire Society and is a Trustee of the Bleddfa Centre for the Creative Spirit.

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