R.I.P. OFF! or The British Way of Death

Can the British laugh in the face of death and funerals? Do they really want to know what happens when they hand their body over to the men in black? You are a short time alive and a long time dead! Go on, risk it; read this irreverent fictionalised tale of real and astonishing events beginning in 1993. At times, deadly serious; at times, deadly funny. It’s the mysterious world of the funeral directors, as they try to kill off burial under trees and oppose DIY funerals. It’s a world of embalming, pink glitzy shrouds, crappy coffins, brawling at funerals and girl power. Nobody’s resting in peace. It spawns a revolution but twenty years later, who is really in control? Find out; if you dare!

Having been involved with over 100,000 funerals, and keeping detailed diaries of incidents that truly happened to him, Ken West has become somewhat of an expert on the matter. R.I.P. Off! provides a unique insight into the world of death and funerals that readers cannot gain by any other means. R.I.P. Off! features the impact of divorce, religious dogma and belief, road and drug deaths, family disputes, poverty, obesity, health and longevity, commercialism and how death has a significant environmental impact. It shows how people deal with death in a myriad of ways, an approach that attempts to demistify death to some degree. Written as a counter view to Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death, West’s novel is an easy read that sets the scene for the UK’s own industry, which is acknowledged as a world leader in green and alternative funerals. The book will appeal to those with a penchant for black humour, who enjoy television programmes such as Six Feet Under and who possess a (not always healthy) morbid interest in death and dying.