Graves of the Great and Famous is a gorgeous compendium of interesting burials and monuments of various royals, presidents, rulers, movie and TV stars, and the pop culture elite. With many, many gorgeous photographs and concise storytelling, this book is a wonderful addition to anyone's library. A quick and entertaining read, perfect for anyone looking for something a little different!

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd for providing me with a digital copy for review. The opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of the author or publisher.

It's a known fact that I love cemeteries. This book takes readers around the world to some of the graves of the great and famous. Divided into categories like world leaders, writers, and actors the book keeps to general themes. Some of the cemeteries and people featured get pages of writeup while others get a small caption. While each person featured is someone significant, some of the information shared and who got long write-up vs. short write-ups seemed arbitrary. Most of the graves featured said where they were located but there were a few that were lacking this information. I also found the layout of the book confusing with insets and random pictures of graves intermixed with unrelated sections of text. The photos in the book were beautiful and all in color which was nice. This is not a book I see myself buying but I did enjoy flipping through it.

Pros: This book about famous graves was fascinating. I appreciated that it was not completely Eurocentric and that it explored graves around the world. This book is part history book, part travelogue, part human geography, part cultural examination, and part art and architecture appreciation. I loved the photography throughout and the opportunity to examine the artistry that went into remembering these famous people..

Cons: This might only be an issue because I read it as an ebook rather than a physical book, but sometimes the pages with photographs were several pages removed from where the person was discussed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to read this book!

I found it informative and entertaining, a book that made me learn something more about people featured.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really enjoyed this book and it was a great reference guide too

The book was well laid out and it was bright too with the text being clear to read and follow too.

The images used were great and they really showed off the exquisite work that had been put in to some of the sites. I loved the mix of old and new graves, some were really a wonderful tribute to the person that showed their personalities and some were simple touches that said a lot.

The book covers the graves and memorials for a huge range for people from Royals, Politicians, Thinkers, Revolutionaries, Writers, Artists, Musicians and Sports over a very wide span of time too and across the world.

It is 5 stars from me for this one – very highly recommended!

I enjoyed this. Very informative but chopped around a little bit with little tidbits on other graves mentioned later but over all enjoyable

Princess Fuzzypants here: It might seem macabre to some but graveyards can be endlessly fascinating. To wander amongst the stones and wonder what lives those interred might have led. I know many people enjoy doing this.

Of course, when it comes to famous people, there is little to wonder about. For the most part, if we are there, we have some semblance of an idea of who they were and what they were like. But if you do not know and are curious, this is a fine book to fill in the gaps. It tells the story of the person, shows their grave and also puts them into perspective with other people. It could be a slightly eccentric form of tourism but with a book like this, you could certainly do the rounds.

Easy to read, informative and filled with great photos. I give it five purrs and two paws up.

As a self-described taphophile (fascinated by cemeteries and tombstones), reading this book was a treat.

This book is a quick read and runs the gamut from dictators to historical figures to celebrities. There's all sorts of trivia included regarding those featured in the book. For instance, the tombs of Pierre and Marie Curie are lead-lined due to their radioactive bodies. Several people have memorial markers but are buried elsewhere; Mozart is an example of this. The gravestones, tombs, and mausoleums are as varied as the people listed.

There's so many photographs in the book and I really appreciated that. I thought the photographer(s) did a great job with the photos, as they were detailed. I did notice the book focuses on graves in the US and Europe and I would have liked to have seen more graves from Asia, and South America. I did like the section on the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France which is the most visited cemetery in the world. I appreciated the photos of Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey, as several of my favorite authors and poets are listed there.

I do have three graves I would have liked to have seen included:
- The tombs of the Appiani and Ribaudo famlies, located in the Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno in Genoa, Italy. The post-punk band Joy Division used photographs of those tombs for covers for the album Closer and 12" single Love Will Tear Us Apart, respectively. This caused controversy as those records were released after their lead singer took his own life.
- The Taj Mahal, as it's the most famous mausoleum in the world.

This book could easily have multiple sequels and I hope it becomes a series.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing this book. All opinions in this review are mine.

Graves of the Great & Famous is a collection of the memorials of some of the most notable icons throughout history. The book is broken up into several different sections ranging from royalty and politicians to artists and musicians. There are over 100 photographs throughout the volume and accompanying short descriptions of each grave site.

The book contains a good mix of some of the more “popular” and well-known memorials but there are quite a few I had not seen before.

I do think the entries could have been arranged better but there is an index in the back of the book which I found helpful.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd!

What a wonderful book, filled with gorgeous photographs, historical facts and interesting anecdotes. Some might think that looking at pictures of graves is creepy, but there is beauty in cemeteries. Horne knows this. Some are humble burials. Others, spectacular mausoleums. The text features the stories of the larger cemeteries, including the ones in Paris, London and LA. From Julius Caesar to Elvis, explorers, actors, dictators, composers, everyone who is anyone is included here. If Jack Lemmon and Laurel Hardy could make fun of death, it can’t be all that bad (Groucho Marx is missing though!). These graveyards and the people who reside there, are not only in the West, but also in Asia and Africa. The stories of these lives and deaths are also remarkable. As depressing as death is, this book shows the beauty in what remains.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Amber Books!

My thanks to NetGalley and Amber Books for a copy of “ Graves Of The Great And Famous “ for an honest review.
Not for everyone I know but I love walking around graveyards , mainly for family history research , but I find inscriptions on headstones very interesting reading.
This book had photos of the final resting places of a variety of well known names. Also attached was interesting information about each person .
I read this on my iPad but I can imagine it would be very impressive in book form.
Highly enjoyable

4 stars - It was really good

This was an interesting book featuring a lot of famous graves. I was surprised by how plain some of them were but others were very elaborate. The book discusses a lot more famous people than are shown in this book, which while cool, I wish all the graves discussed were shown. If you are interested in graveyards this will probably be a good book for you.

"A grave is a monument to life". In Graves of the Great and Famous through 75 entries and 150 enchanting photographs we see a variety of final resting places for great and famous who died of natural causes, from assassinations, suicide, accidents and disease. Some graves are understated and humble, some are laden with engraved meaning, others are garden plots and still others are colourful and massive. Though from different life circumstances, we all have one thing in common...death.

At the beginning of each chapter there is information about a particular category with detailed examples.
Categories include Royals, Politicians, Thinkers, Revolutionaries, Writers, Artists, Musicians and Sports (with subcategories). When traveling in Europe I stroll around beautiful and atmospheric cemeteries and also seek out graves of those known to be in the area. My personal favourites include those of Royals, Thinkers, Writers, Musicians and Artists and I have had the fortune to see many in various burial places (some in this book) such as castles, abbeys, monasteries, church yards and gardens. Interestingly, as the author's research shows, the final burial place may not necessarily be final. Many remans have been moved to a different location, some more than once. A few are forgotten in history and later rediscovered.

Some of the many graves detailed here include the likely gravesite of Vlad the Impaler, the beautiful likeness of Elizabeth I, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Princess Diana in a soothing peaceful park, Galeleo Galilei sans a few body parts (but a gorgeous tomb), imposing grave of Karl Marx at Highgate (whose atmospheric seven subterranean cemeteries also house Dante and George Eliot), Marie and Pierre Curie whose coffins are lined to contain their radioactivity), evocative crosses of Hans and Sophie Scholl next to the prison in which they died for distributing anti-Nazism flyers, Jane Austen's brother's interesting choice of words in her Winchester Cathedral resting spot, Oscar Wilde's unique winged figure in Paris, Franz Kafka in the New Jewish cemetery in Prague, Michelangelo's lovely tomb in Florence, Coco Chanel's meaningful headstone, Chopin in Warsaw, Bob Marley's mausoleum in Jamaica and Judy Garland appropriately in Hollywood.

I really like that the author includes thought-provoking quotes from greats such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Martin Luther and John Keats, Really quite beautiful and profound. This book of surprises not only shows photographs of burial spots but also includes brief stories about the person buried there.

My sincere thank you to Amber Books Ltd. and NetGalley for the privilege of reading and learning from this compelling book.

I love travel, art, history and have been known to go out of my way to visit graves and historic places, so this is right up my alley. The book is sections include; Royals/Rulers, Thinkers/Explorers, Revolutionaries/Humanitarians, Writers, Artists, Entertainers, etc. This is a British publication so I wasn’t surprised to find good amount of British graves included. There are international graves but it is primarily western centric. By my quick count I have been to over 40 of the graves showcased in this book. But you get a lot from visiting Westminster Abby and Highgate Cemetery in London and the Pantheon and my favorite cemetery, Pere Lachaise in Paris. It also sent me into a photo dive not remembering if I’d seen the graves for Jane Austin or Catherine the Great, and I had.

The photos are beautiful and it is interesting to see more unusual resting places like Gauguin’s grave in French Polynesia. The blurbs are informative but occasionally lacking information. For example, Karen Carpenter's blurb told about her life and music but not the grave's location. And most of the graves historically signifiant like the tomb of the unknown soldier but the graves for Stan Laurel or Buster Keaton seem arbitrary compared to others that could be chosen.

Overall the book is fun to read through. It is easily something I would borrow from a library although I doubt I would need to own it. My digital copy has formatting issues where blurbs were not always by the photos they were describing. Hopefully that will be fixed. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd., for a temporary ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A grave is a monument to a life. "

When I seeing remarkable gravestones and esthetic tombs, I often intrigue to know more about the stories behind the stones. Graves of the Great Famous is one of illustration book which provided reader with information and artistic photographs.
All chapters divide by several categories dedicated to different proffesion such as Royals, rulers and politicians. Thinkers, scientists and explorers. Revolutionaries, rebels and humanitarians,. Writers, poets and playwrights. Artists and designers. Musicians, entertainers and sports people. Actors and directors.

Personally I devoured this book very fast. Not only provide artistic pictures, the narration also enjoyable and easy to understand. The story take me to following memorial journey around the world, across millennia and saw life glimpse from each public figures. I found snippets story about our country first President gravestones too.

Thank you Netgalley and Amber Books Ltd, Amber Books for provided my copy. I am grateful and my thoughts are my own.

This book is haunting yet stunning! Very tastefully and respectively dove considering the subject matter. Wonderful to get to see these places that I probably never will in real life. Really beautiful.

As someone who loves books, history, art, sculpture, and all things pop culture, whether it's music, sports, etc.... This one absolutely captivated me. This one is not just a book that shares pictures and information about where famous people are buried - it is so much more: it is a glimpse into the life of people who changed the world, and their lasting legacies, and the way the light they brought to the world continued to shine on, even from their place of burial, as the masses come from all over the world to pay their respects to the people who have changed the world.

The book was very good. Very interesting. The only issue I have is the way the book formatted. The formatting was terrible. Took away from the book overall. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.