It's an impossibly difficult and painful time; someone you love has just died and you have very quickly to choose an appropriate and moving reading for the funeral. In an increasingly secular age, people often look for a poem or piece of prose which will celebrate the life of the person who has just died, and, as well as inspiring religious poems, Sally Emerson's anthology includes secular words of comfort, celebration and mourning.

This is also an anthology in its own right, and offers insight into universal emotions. These pieces will help to express grief and anger, but also help to understand grieving, and the gradual repair of life after losing a loved one.