What Remains? - by Rupert Callender (Hardcover)

About the Book

"When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. What Remains? is the brilliant, unforgettable story of the life and work of the world's first punk undertaker-but it is also a book 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, traditional, 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 too an outsider "DIY" ethos to help people navigate grief and death. 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 modern 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 readers think about life, death, and the all-important end-of-life experience"--

Book Synopsis

Death is not my friend, neither is it my enemy; it is my destiny.

"Part memoir, part rant against the traditional funeral business, part manifesto, part just musing on death and facing it with compassion and courage. It's lovely and thoughtful and may make you rethink a few things."--The Guardian

"This book is a great work of craft and beauty."--Salena Godden, author of Mrs Death Misses Death

When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. What Remains? is the brilliant, unforgettable story of the life and work of the world's first punk undertaker--but it is also a book 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, traditional, 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 an outsider "DIY" ethos to help people navigate grief and death. 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 modern 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 readers think about life, death, and the all-important end-of-life experience.

"Rupert Callender hope[s] to redefine the funeral."--The Telegraph

"Death has shown me unimaginable horror, the unbreakable core of love and courage that lies at the heart of what it means to be human."--Rupert Callender, from What Remains?

Review Quotes

"Part memoir, part rant against the traditional funeral business, part manifesto, part just musing on death and facing it with compassion and courage. It's lovely and thoughtful and may make you rethink a few things."--The Guardian

"This isn't a grisly book; it is sharp, angry, punchily philosophical and often funny. It basically invents a new type of lifestyle aspiration: deathstyle."--The Times

"Callender's joyous, thought-provoking book is an account of how his own early encounters with bereavement led to him becoming a new kind of undertaker."--Daily Mail

"What Remains? is a profound and vital book that reads less like a memoir and more like a confession. As honest, terrifying and truthful as a mirror at midday, it embraces life and death equally and is too compassionate to flinch. Inspiring and unforgettable."--John Higgs, author of William Blake vs the World

"A fascinating insight into Life's oldest ritual. Dead interesting."--Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

"A remarkable book. One of the most important books of our age. It had me laughing and crying by turns, sometimes both at the same time, and each page brought a new revelation, a new insight, a new understanding of what it means to be human in this beautiful world, in this strange moment we are passing through. It's a book destined to join the greats of counterculture nonfiction, like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Cosmic Trigger and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test."--CJ Stone, author of Fierce Dancing

"A truly extraordinary book. It is like nothing else I've ever read, or thought I needed. Heartful of the ferocious, transcendent power of love and wonder; it is deeply profound, funny, and wholly and radically moving. What Remains? reveals life in the presence of death, as alchemy; as glorious and thoughtful ritual. Bright and dark and glittering as a funeral pyre, its embers are lasting, life-affirming, life-changing, death facing and unflinching."--Nicola Chester, Wainwright-longlisted author of On Gallows Down

"I loved What Remains? Funny, demystifying, but mostly, deeply moving."--Kathy Burke, director

"If there is one book you should read when death comes knocking or you get the sudden urge to build a crop circle in the middle of the night, then this is that book. I was lucky...lucky because when my kid brother died suddenly and shockingly, The Green Funeral Company were the local undertakers in his hometown; they even knew him. They took me to their forest HQ at Dartington Hall, where Simon was laid out on a funeral bier in their chapel of rest like some medieval king. Later, in the front office by the fire, we talked about building pyres and pyramids in a forest clearing. In the end, Simon's funeral was simple, and better for it. From crop circles to the Gates of Hell and back again, Ru's book will be your guide."--Jimmy Cauty, The JAM's, K2 Plant Hire

"It's extraordinary. You'll laugh, you'll cry, your heart will break, your heart will shine, filled with love. You'll be changed. An instant classic."--Rob Hopkins, author of From What Is to What If

"Rupert Callender takes us to the dark end of the street, but he does so with wit, beauty and no little experience. It's a one-of-a-kind ride, filled with storytelling. This original and gutsy book will do a lot of good in the world."--Martin Shaw, author of Smoke Hole

"Rupert Callender's compelling personal story brings us face to face with what he describes as "the sharp edge, where life cuts into death" a place our society keeps discreetly under wraps, but which we will all visit sooner or later. An exquisitely sensitive, eloquent and courageous guide to its mysteries and terrors, its ordinariness and its humanity."--Mike Jay, writer and cultural historian

"This book is great work of craft and beauty, truth and humanity, heart and soul. I believe it could be used as a teaching tool and as a comfort. I find Callender's approach to this huge subject deeply loving and moving, but also revolutionary in spirit and courageous."--Salena Godden, author of Mrs Death Misses Death

"This moving, angry and funny book isn't just about an odd career ushering people off to join the Silent Majority, but a beautiful guide to how to live, grieve and remember well."--Luke Turner, author of Out of the Woods; co-founder, The Quietus

"Vulnerable, raw and moving, this is a book for anyone who strives to die, and live, in an emotionally authentic and honest way. Essential reading. Beautifully written."--Louise Winter, progressive funeral director, coauthor of We All Know How This Ends

About the Author

Ru Callender was moved to become an undertaker through his experience of bereavement and its aftermath. He spent much of his childhood in the hospice where his mother worked, and the caring humanistic philosophy of the hospice movement is central to his work. He opened The Green Funeral Company with Claire in 2000 and the company is now among the country's best-known eco-friendly funeral directors. In 2012, they won Joint Best Funeral Director at the first Good Funeral Awards and were described as 'The best undertakers of all time, by a country mile' by Good Funeral Guide author, Charles Cowling. Ru and Claire spoke at TEDx Totnes on death, grief, ritual and radical funerals. In 2021, Claire left the company and Ru continues with a new colleague.

Callender, Phillips, Cauty & Drummond: Undertakers to the Underworld was established as a partnership between The Green Funeral Company and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (KLF) in 2017. Find out more at: www.thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk and follow Ru on Twitter @wayswithweirds and RuCallender.com