Undertaking in the Fast Lane

Undertaking in the Fast Lane - The Madness and Merriment of Funerals
The new biography of Tim Penrose's early working life.

Thrust into funeral directing at a very young age, Tim saw his first dead body at seventeen, and conducted his first funeral at the absurd age of eighteen.

We arrived to find not only police, which we had expected, but also Hereford Fire Brigade in tow. They had both been called to the incident. The entire tower block had been taped off and scenes of crime (those people in the white boiler suits that you see on the telly), police detectives, regular coppers, ambulance men, and now sadly not needed firemen that looked smoky, dusty, wet and exhausted. All would soon be clear. Charles Faulkner, an elderly pensioner had suffered a critical heart attack whilst smoking, the cigarette had caused a fire and his whole body had been burnt up.

Previously I had dealt with a carbon monoxide suicide, but that was a bit cleaner than this. Here we had a blackened corpse, hot, smelling and in his fireside chair in front of a still broadcasting television – my first job was to turn it off as “The Wombles” had just started and the song “Underground, Overground” didn’t really seem to suit the moment . ...

Only £15 including UK delivery.