A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards cover art

A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards

Scottish Non-fiction Book of the Year 2021

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A Tomb With a View – The Stories & Glories of Graveyards

By: Peter Ross
Narrated by: Peter Ross
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About this listen

For listeners of The Salt Path, Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane.

Enter a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning journalist Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of Britain's best 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....

©2020 Peter Ross (P)2020 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Anthropology Death & Dying Europe Sociology Western Europe

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Critic reviews

"His stories are always a joy." (Ian Rankin)

"I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross." (Robert Macfarlane)

"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)

All stars
Most relevant  
Well researched book written by someone who has a passion not just for the facts but for people and emotions. It was well read too. I was sorry that it had to end.

Fascinating and wide ranging well read book

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Such a gorgeous book. Brought to life by the author, so glad I chose to listen as an audio book. So fascinating

Just beautiful

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Beautifully and sensitively written. We meander from the long lost past, meditating on lives of those still residing in the few remaining charnel houses to the life affirming weddings now taking place in graveyards like Arnos in Bristol. Peter Ross converses on the way with those who have chosen different ways to bury their loved ones and celebrate them , which gives me at least some inspiration about my departure! It feels in no way a particularly sad book, though at times moving, meditative, celebratory , odd and very human. A book i think I'll delve into again...

A book for lovers and wanderers in graveyards

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Such a beautifully written book. It might seem odd that a book about graveyards and death could be so affirming and uplifting, but it is. For it's really, of course, a book about life.

This is non-fiction at its best – hugely interesting and informative, but also deeply human. The writing is sublime: philosophical, poignant, poetic. I work as a book editor, so I read a vast array of books, from terrible to brilliant. The very best non-fic manages to illuminate, hold interest and shine a light on some aspect of this whole malarkey of being human. This is one such book. Peter Ross is in complete command of his writing. I read a rather pompous review that takes a pop at the book for its fondness for a fancy phrase, but, for me, and as a fellow editor, the writing is a large part of the book's quality and appeal. It makes it engaging and enjoyable to listen. My first rule as an editor is: you have to respect a writer's style (rather than try to impose your own). Ross has panache as a writer, and there really are some very beautiful passages – pure poetry – as well as plenty of lines of wryness and wit that made me smile.

This is one of those books that reminds you how incredible and generous humans can be – there are many deeply moving sections that leave you with a strong feeling of human kindness. Thank you, Peter Ross.

Stunning – philosophical, poignant, poetic

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This is a rambling walk in a whole host of graveyards around the UK from the Victorian London graveyards to the IRA war cemey in Belfast. It "digs" under the surface to tell lost of stories and the stories of those living and dead in them. Fascinating and light at the same time.

A fascinating tour of graveyards in UK

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Ross reads his own words well in this tale of the history of mortality in the UK and Ireland, focusing on the stories of the deceased or their resting places. He really doesn't seem to like Kent, though!

A well written social history

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Mr Ross tells stories that are not just moving, inspiring and respectful, but show that while graveyards may hold the dead, they hold a record of the living, and preserve the story of a community in a very special and unique way. Lovely performance by the author, highly recommended.

Poignant and moving

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The book and performance were good, but the overall quality of the recording was so bad that it impacted my enjoyment.

Poor sound quality

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A fascinating story about the place of graveyards in the social and cultural history of the world. As Ross shows, graveyards are much more than a place to bury the dead.

A book about death that brims with life

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I had no interest in listening to anything connected to the IRA , perhaps the author needs to remember how many women and children these disgusting creatures murdered .a good book spoilt .

Spoilt for me

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