Bridget Belgrave reflects on the “Assisted Suicide” discussion at the Festival- Assisted Suicide is a scary subject. As I headed out to an evening on this topic, organized as part of the impressive Kicking the Bucket Festival, I felt slightly nauseous. I wondered who would be there. Perhaps no one! Or, my black humour suggested, only … More What is unbearable?

Funeral Director Lucy Coulbert addresses head-on the important question of funeral costs:  I actively work as a funeral director in Oxford and have been a funeral director or carriage master for the last fifteen years. Funeral affordability is at the forefront of a lot of media attention since the Department of Work and Pensions Select … More What will it cost? – a funeral director’s viewpoint

Emmy, from Oxford’s Ark-T Centre, writes – As a community centre dedicated to the power of creativity to transform lives and unite people in a shared mission for a more peaceful, kind and joyful community, we felt compelled to join forces with the kicking the bucket movement. Some questions held in my mind in the … More ‘The Art of Living and Dying’

  Sophie Scott, “Professor of Laughter”, joins Paul Mayhew-Archer and Andy Hamilton for “Laughing in the Face of Death” on the evening of 5th November – more details on the Diary of Events page. Here Sophie explains how vital laughter can be in every situation-  Nearly 20 years ago, when he was mortally ill and … More “We’ve laughed a lot, haven’t we”

  Josefine Speyer, co-founder of the Natural Death Centre, writes- The Natural Death Centre was 25 years old this year! We celebrated with a Natural Death Salon at my house, the home of the offices of the charity until 2002. It was a fundraising event, as well as a celebration, a time to reminisce and … More Firmly on the side of the ordinary mortal – the Natural Death Centre

Six months ago, journalism student Beth told us in her blog about her Mum’s work with Cruse. Now Sarah from Oxfordshire Cruse Bereavement Care tells us more – as she says, there will be Cruse volunteers at the Festival on 5th November, if you’d like to speak to one –  If we have one thing … More If we have one thing in common- Cruse and bereavement care

Jane, one of the Festival’s presenters, writes- I burst into tears. 15 days after my husband’s death, and I was alone in the house for the first time. I settled down on what used to be his chair with my TV dinner on my lap, ready to switch on. Picking up the remote, I pressed … More What On Earth Has A TV Got to Do With Death?

At Oxford’s Story Museum this weekend (29th and 30th October) there will be a specially constructed Mexican Day of the Dead Altar. As Genny Ramirez, one of the curators, writes below, this marks a very different approach to the dead than the European cultural tradition. (Full details of opening times under “Diary of Events” on this website) … More This weekend at the Story Museum

Dr Phil Hammond, GP and BBC presenter, blogs for us… ‘Don’t ever tell a patient how long he or she has left to live. You will rarely succeed.’ This advice was drummed into me by a wise consultant over thirty years ago and it would appear from this recent analysis of 12,000 prognoses that we … More A word of advice from the doctor!

After a packed performance at the North Wall last night we officially launch the festival today – 25th October – with an event at Blackwells at 5 pm with Rachael Chadwick author of 50postcards.  A chance to hear her extraordinary story, eat delicious skull biscuits, fill in one of our postcards and see our beautiful … More Today’s the Day – it’s all Kicking Off!