This is a thoroughly useful, authoritative and compassionate book about the last taboo subject-death. In exploring our responses to death, it reveals a great deal about Australian society. There is grim humour in the practical details of burial in the days of pick and shovel-and a priest if you were lucky. Stories of elaborate Victorian mourning etiquette, of poignant personal histories recorded on gravestones, of vehement debates about cremation, and much more, make good reading. The auth...

The life of Phonse Tobin was anything but ordinary. Born in 1905, he followed on behind soldiers as they marched to the wharves to depart for WW1. He earned pocket money by trapping rats and collecting the South Melbourne Council's rat bounty, and almost 'haunted' the Collins Street movie and live theatres.After leaving school in 1919 he worked as a storeman, salesman, soldier and fireman. In 1934 Phonse and his brothers Leo, Tom and Kevin started what has become Australia's most s...