Enables those who have been bereaved to express their thoughts and feelings.

Readings for Funerals is a perceptive collection of Bible quotations, poems, hymns and prose, offering consolation and comfort to those bereaved. Featuring the writing of, amongst others, W. H. Auden, Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope, T. S. Eliot and Joyce Grenfell, it is suitable for use at secular funerals, celebrations of a life and church services. This book follows the style of the highly successful Readings for Weddings which has sold over 7,000 copies.

"This book will be a great help and a real comfort to anyone going through a difficult time in their life – something that happens to us all sooner or later." - Dame Judi Dench

"Mark Oakley is highly regarded as a writer, speaker and broadcaster on issues of faith, poetry and literature: It is extremely unusual to meet anyone who isn’t a specialist who has such a subtle feeling for language." - Sir Andrew Motion, Former Poet Laureate

"An exceptionally wide-ranging collection of verse, including some standard favourites, but much that is less well-known: Vera Arlett and Alden Nowlan for example, but also including poems in translation (Quevedo, Kaplinski, Hitomaro). The poems and short reflections are sandwiched between a collection of 46 suggested hymns, making this a book that any lay person could use to start planning a funeral. My only concern is that many of these poems would have to be read aloud by someone experienced at public speaking, or their impact will be lost." - The Reader