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In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder
In March 2022, English labour MP Jess Philips read out a list in parliament that consisted of the names of 128 women killed by men in the last year. This list is based on the work of Karen Ingala Smith, who started Counting Dead Women, and Philips has been reading out the names of murdered…
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Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers
This will be a problem many book lovers have, but despite having plenty to read, I sometimes find it hard to choose my next book. To solve this ‘problem’, I recently shared a photo with selected titles on Twitter, to ask the public which book they would pick. Overwhelmingly, the vote went to Mary Roach’s…
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The Last Word
For as long as I can remember, visiting a cemetery with my parents was a typical activity to do on weekends. Sometimes we would ‘visit the family’ and tour a couple of cemeteries around Bussum, the place my father grew up. We would have a little wander, and look at the graves of deceased relatives…
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The Elements: a Widowhood
Disclaimer: I am currently recovering from Covid, which has caused some brain fog, so apologies if this review isn’t coherent… Close your eyes. I want you to picture a widow. Who do you see? What do they look like? How do they move? What do they wear? What is their story? Take a moment to…
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Tastes Like War
In April I wrote about Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner. Zauner eloquently describes the complexities of Korean-American dual heritage, about not fitting in, and how the death of a parent can also mark the death of having access to a cultural heritage. Or at least feeling you somehow lost the key to your own identity, as…
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Dying in Full Detail
Having recently edited a Special Issue on Death and the Screen for Revenant (to be published later this year), with podcast co-host, friend, and all-round wonderful person Bethan Michael-Fox, I have found myself delving deeper in the topic of mediated death, death in popular culture, and distinctions between ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ deaths. Both fiction and non-fiction…