Ashes To Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer

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The book was read for our (Not So) Cheery book club of people involved in end of life and funeral work so it'll be interesting for discussion. I love how she isn’t overt with her quite apparent political opinions, rather focuses on work and shows the banality of the system, and why all the common tropes about useless councils are ludicrous. Evie's commitment to her people is commendable and she's the kind of worker you'd want assigned to your case. What I would like to know is if you were contacted now by a relative of one of these people whose certificates have your name on, who hadn't known of their death at the time, would you be able to tell them where the final resting place of their family member is or at least be able to tell them how to go about accessing the information? Very interesting, well paced book about a council officer’s job burying those who have no-one else who can.

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It lifts the lid on the lives, and more importantly the deaths, of our country's forgotten people, dignifying them, and shaming our nation. Thanks to Evie King an inspiring local council worker in charge of carrying out Section 46 funerals under the Public Health Act, these individuals’ lives are not forgotten (and other Council Funeral Officers of course! Funeral poverty is a growing issue, and can be one of the reasons why people will receive a Section 46 funeral; families can simply not afford it. Sadly it contains similar words, "causing the body to be cremated" and I suspect the person who did that may have a similar role to yourself.Moving out of London to the seaside, Evie found herself needing a job, and ended up working for a local council. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you.

Ashes To Admin by Evie King | Waterstones

Sometimes hard to handle, as an anxious person who usually relies on reading to relax and escape such worries, but made bearable and enjoyable with plenty of humour and memorable pearls of wisdom. Sometimes tragic, as with the case of an unidentified woman found on a beach buried without even a name, but often uplifting and occasionally hilarious. Alongside dealing with the standard complaints we expect the council to deal with (bin collections, noise, dog poo, etc), she sees humanity, life, and death in all its strangeness. I work at a funeral directors so I did have an interest already in the subject but you don’t need to at all. Her thoughts on life, dying, and death, and the relationship between them, are thought-provoking, heart-felt and compassionate.In a gentle and funny tone Evie King highlights both the bureaucracy and the humanity that is behind funerals organised under Section 46.

Ashes to Admin: The Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer

the author is a fantastic narrator and the perfect person to guide us through this book, the emotional parts and the funny anecdotes too. The final chapter, on the unknown lady, is one of the most moving things I've ever read, and if you can read that without feeling moved, then there is something dead inside you. The answer to this very three-in-the-morning question is that Evie, or someone like her, will step in and arrange your funeral.

A former stand up comedian, she has always written short form pieces in the margins of her various day jobs, contributing to New Humanist, Guardian Comment is Free, BBC Comedy and Viz Comic. That said, her kindness, generosity and tenacity is evident throughout in the efforts she goes to to ensure those in need of a section 46 funeral get something that is a true reflection of the person they were. I've come across more than my fair share of faceless bureaucrats who have gone about their job with complete disdain for the people they are meant to help lately. Evie King is a local council worker charged with carrying out Section 46 funerals under the Public Health Act.

Ashes To Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Ashes To Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral

Knowing absolutely zero about council funerals aside from the negative term 'a paupers funeral' the subject matter of this book caught my eye. Her book aims to tell the otherwise lost stories of those who have ended up in her care, smash that 3am anxiety about who will be there when we die and how many people will attend our funeral, encourage advanced planning, and invite us to rethink our ideas around life, death and legacy. She ensures that the funeral will be conducted according to the deceased's wishes, if known, or their family's, and then liases with whoever is conducting the service. This really jumped out at me, as I often feel that people focus on lifespan and not the value and quality of life we have. A downside to longevity that people sometimes don’t consider, and something that is striven for blindly in our life-at-all-costs culture.The author works in England performing the duties that are performed in the US by county public administrators.