Dying to Know

Pilotlight Australia and Hardie Grant Books are pleased to announce the launch of Dying to Know - bringing death to life in the United Kingdom on the 15th March 2010, in association with Dying Matters Week. The book was spear-headed by Jane Tewson whose 30 years in the charitable sector have been driven by a passion to create positive social change. Greater connection between people and for people when they need it most is behind all her initiatives, like Comic Relief which she co-founded in the 1980s. This time, with her team at Pilotlight Australia, Jane is using a graphic, provocative book, rather than a red nose, to start a conversation! Like so many others, the team at Pilotlight Australia has been challenged by death and what lies beyond it - they believe that renewing a conversation about dying can help build supportive communities and inspire change for the living. Traditionally people have always lived with death - an inseparable part of their lives. But for many people today, death has become a modern taboo.
This little book seeks to break the silence around death and dying and stimulate a discussion that genuinely connects people on the most profound level, not as experts, but as people with the same dreams, hopes, fears and concerns. Dying to Know offers a series of thought buds that reflect on bringing death to life - practical information, quirky facts and humble suggestions that lift the lid on death - planning a personalised funeral; telling people you love them while they are alive rather than waiting to write a memorial notice; taking round a meal for a family overcome with loss; donating organs; creating online memorials; writing an emotional will in which you leave things of the heart rather than your material property; things to do before you die and a host of other topics. Each is presented in a double-page spread and each succeeds in empowering, inspiring and, at times, amusing the reader. The book is also designed as a resource that links the reader to a vast range of services and organisations - from support for people with cancer to statutory information about Wills. But Dying to Know is not a book with all the answers.
Just ideas, insights, reflections and inspiring illustrations about a subject none of us can escape. Read it and then rush into the daylight to get on with the more challenging matter of living.