What Remains? cover art

What Remains?

"Life, Death and the Human Art of Undertaking"

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What Remains?

By: Rupert Callender
Narrated by: Rupert Callender
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About this listen

When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. This book is his brilliant, unforgettable story—the life and work of the world’s first punk undertaker—but it's also about ordinary, everyday humanity and our capacity to face death with courage and compassion, to say goodbye to the people we love in our own way.

In becoming the world’s first “punk undertaker” and establishing the Green Funeral Company in Devon, UK, Ru Callender and his partner Claire challenged the stilted, structured world of the funeral industry—fusing what he had learned from his own deeply personal experiences with death with the surprising and profound answers and raw emotion he discovered in rave culture and ritual magick.

From his unresolved grief for his parents and his cultural ancestors to political and religious non-conformists, social outlaws, experimental pioneers, and acid-house culture, Ru Callender has taken to a “DIY” ethos to help people navigate grief. He has carried coffins across windswept beaches, sat in pubs with caskets on beer-stained tables, helped children fire flaming arrows into their father’s funeral pyre, turned occult rituals into performance art, and, with the band members of KLF, is building the People’s Pyramid of bony bricks in Liverpool.

What Remains? is a profound, deeply moving, and politically charged book that will change the way listeners think about life, death, and the all-important end-of-life experience.

©2022 Rupert Callender (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Death & Dying Grief & Loss Personal Development Relationships Sociology
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An enthralling and surprising account of Rupert’s life and path into undertaking. Poetic and informative, very well read by the author.

Fascinating

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A dark and difficult subject that has been lightly and deftly handled. I cried but I laughed too. I am now trying to get friends and family to read it because I want to talk about it so much.

A brilliant book that needed to be written.

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not quite what I was expecting, but a good book nonetheless.

The narrator needs to pick up the pace a bit, not the best.

Thought provoking

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Rupert Callender was the Funeral Director of a funeral I recently attended. It was a truly moving and cathartic funeral and Rupert spoke of the deceased with huge appreciation, knowledge, sensitivity and humour.

I felt compelled to find out more about Rupert and so downloaded this audiobook which is just wonderful.

It claims not to be a self help book and yet (having been recently bereaved myself) I found it hugely cathartic to listen to. I enjoyed the raw emotion, honesty and humanity of this account of Rupert Callender’s own experiences of bereavement, love, loss and undertaking.

If death has affected or is going to affect you (which of course it has and will) I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Probably the most cathartic audiobook I am ever likely to listen to.

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The funeral world is, in the main, a traditional one and, like many traditions, no longer quite fit for purpose. Rupert Callender (I’m sure would gladly agree) is viewed by many as a maverick but he’s an honest one and there’s much to learn within this book. It’s beautifully written and raw in its delivery (not edited to perfection like some) I finished it, went straight back to the beginning and I’m listening again.

An exquisitely crafted view of grief and undertaking

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