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whatsamreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
gareth_alan's review against another edition
4.0
This book is about Peter Everett's time working at Southwark Mortuary in the 80s. The state of the thievery, corruption and incompetence he endured there is almost unbelievable. There was jewellery and money being stolen from the dead, body parts sold on the sly, bodies being mixed up, post mortems being rushed to earn top bonus, bribery, cover-ups...
Then there was the state of the building itself. Bad heating, bad lighting, rotten wood, faulty equipment, unclean work areas, no room to store bodies, cowboy builders...you name it. A combination of uncaring staff and the cost-cutting council just let things get worse and worse.
Peter tells the story of how he did everything in his power to turn things around, from exposing the thievery and corruption, to battling to get the building renovated. This made him a pariah amongst the mortuary industry, losing friends and respect from colleagues for doing the right thing.
He also tells some of his life story, about how he became fascinated with death, how it all affected his personal life, and he talks about some of the cases he worked on and some of the brilliant people he worked with. The whole thing could be made into a excellent TV series. There's plenty of drama, murder cases, interesting characters. It would be ace.
The book goes into detail about a lot of the deaths he encountered. Some of the murders he describes are horrifying. It's not all doom and gloom though, there's some snippets of dark humour in there too, just like you'd expect from a death worker. You have to laugh or you'll cry, right?
So yes, I enjoyed this one. I've always been fascinated with the subject of death and the industry. It was shocking to see how badly some of the mortuaries in England were being run and what was going on in the 80s. It wasn't even that long ago if you think about it. Thanks to people like Peter Everett, things are a lot better now and "the dead finally rest in peace."
Then there was the state of the building itself. Bad heating, bad lighting, rotten wood, faulty equipment, unclean work areas, no room to store bodies, cowboy builders...you name it. A combination of uncaring staff and the cost-cutting council just let things get worse and worse.
Peter tells the story of how he did everything in his power to turn things around, from exposing the thievery and corruption, to battling to get the building renovated. This made him a pariah amongst the mortuary industry, losing friends and respect from colleagues for doing the right thing.
He also tells some of his life story, about how he became fascinated with death, how it all affected his personal life, and he talks about some of the cases he worked on and some of the brilliant people he worked with. The whole thing could be made into a excellent TV series. There's plenty of drama, murder cases, interesting characters. It would be ace.
The book goes into detail about a lot of the deaths he encountered. Some of the murders he describes are horrifying. It's not all doom and gloom though, there's some snippets of dark humour in there too, just like you'd expect from a death worker. You have to laugh or you'll cry, right?
So yes, I enjoyed this one. I've always been fascinated with the subject of death and the industry. It was shocking to see how badly some of the mortuaries in England were being run and what was going on in the 80s. It wasn't even that long ago if you think about it. Thanks to people like Peter Everett, things are a lot better now and "the dead finally rest in peace."