As entertaining and startling as it is deeply insightful, A Tomb with a View takes the reader on an unforgettable tour of the spaces that house the dead, visiting the burial grounds of Britain and unveiling an incredible host of stories, facts and myths of both the dead and death's influence on the living.
Enter a grave new world in this acclaimed book as Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of 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...
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781472267788
Number of pages: 368
Weight: 275 g
Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 26 mm
Absorbing . . . considered and moving. - Hilary Mantel
Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable. - The Observer
The pages burst with life and anecdote while also examining our relationship with remembrance. - Financial Times
Among the year's most surprising "sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View, Peter Ross's critically acclaimed ode to "the stories and glories of graveyards". In a year with so much death, it may have initially seemed a hard sell, but the author's humanity has instead acted as a beacon of light in the darkness. - The Sunday Times
Never has a book about death been so full of life. James Joyce and Charles Dickens would've loved it - a book that reveals much gravity in the humour and many stories in the graveyard. It also reveals Peter Ross to be among the best non-fiction writers in the country. - Andrew O'Hagan
I have nothing but admiration for his way to winkle out a story from the living as well as paying homage to the dead. - The Scotsman
Ross has written [a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds. - Evening Standard
A brilliant buy - Stylist
A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the people who love them, dazzlingly told. - Denise Mina
Beautifully written and strangely life affirming. - Norman Blake, Teenage Fanclub
A walk through the graveyards of Britain guided by one of the most engaging wordsmiths willing to take you by the hand. - The Big Issue
It is not too fanciful to talk of the soul of A Tomb With A View. It is replete with stories but it echoes with something profound. - The Herald
Scottish journalist Ross's meander around graveyards raises profound questions about the way in which we mourn - I News - Christmas Gift Guide 2020
Peter Ross makes a fine contribution to the library of books about "being planted". . . I have nothing but admiration for his way to winkle out a story from the living as well as paying homage to the dead - The Scotsman’s Scottish Books of the Year
Everyday humanity, an acknowledgement of how life continues in the presence of the dead. . . is writ large in A Tomb with a View, in Ross's encounters with tour guides, local historians, a gardener, a stonecutter, even a recent widow. - Prospect
Ross's book is an engaging ramble among the gravestones and burial plots of Britain and Ireland - Irish Examiner
I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross. - Robert Macfarlane
His stories are always a joy. - Ian Rankin
An evocative and uplifting exploration of cemeteries, where every headstone has a story to tell. . . Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book. - The Guardian Book of The Day
Ross' development into a sensitive and empathetic observer of social ritual has culminated in this treasure - The Big Issue
A phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book - Frank Turner
[a] celebration of life and of love. It confronts our universal fate but tends towards a comforting embrace of mortality. It is also imbued with something deeply moving. - The Herald
This is a beautifully-written and well-researched book, which allows the stories of some extraordinary past lives, bereaved families, and those who now care for our dead, to shine through. Thoughtful and moving but... More
I am a huge fan of Peter Ross’s work and of his writing in particular. He is a writer who loves to seek out human stories, especially those that are warm and full of life and hope. He has always struck me as a... More
In the midst of life...
A moving meditation on the ways in which we have treated our dead and, in turn, how they have treated us. From the great urban necropolises to the secret burial grounds of the excluded, these...
More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
