Will I love A Tomb With a View?

Although Ross’s book appears to be a guide to visiting graveyards, its focus often turns toward the people who work there: gravediggers, tour guides, historians, and even memorial artists. One of my favorite essays in the book introduces a modern maker of death masks, whose work appears on three headstones in Highgate Cemetery. The eulogy for “the best-known guide at the most famous cemetery in Ireland” nearly brought me to tears.

A Tomb With A View tells the stories of the graveyards and their dead, true, but most of all Ross conveys how the relationships between the dead and those… show more.

As much as Ross's book is about visiting graveyards, it's even more about the people who work in graveyards: from gravediggers to tour guides to historians to memorial artists. One of my favorite essays in the book is about the Iranian father who built an exquisite monument to his 11-year-old son in London's poshest cemetery. Another favorite is the discussion with a modern maker of death masks. The eulogy for "the best-known guide at the most famous cemetery in Ireland" nearly brought me to tears. Ross tells the stories of the graveyards and their dead, true, but most of all… show more.