Memorials to the Dead

England’s oldest identifiable cemetery was established over 10,000 years ago, founded before the first bricks of the pyramids were laid. Since then, the English have memorialised their dead in ever-changing ways, providing taphophiles with a glorious pick-and-mix of social histories and archaeological mysteries on their doorstep.

In churchyards and cemeteries across England, curious monuments rise between the graves; beautiful, unusual, striking and downright… odd. Memorials to the Dead chronicles over 100 of the grandest and strangest graves on English soil—including many obscure memorials unknown to most local residents and cemetery enthusiasts—unveiling a little-known world of death and remembrance that exists alongside our own. From the graves of circus performers to ‘time machines’, a man killed by ‘small beer’ and a Victorian grave so popular that it launched its own line of merchandise, Memorials to the Dead presents a fascinating overview of England’s best-hidden histories in atmospheric and detailed photographs.