Friday 24th April 2026 2pm-5pm

Join us for a guided tour of Arnos Vale with the theme of love and loss filled with a rich mix of real-life tales — from couples united in life but separated in death, to daring elopements, parental love, and forbidden love. Some stories are touching, some tragic, and some wonderfully surprising. Tour starts at the Spielman Centre.

This will be followed by a creative writing workshop on the theme of love and loss, to include practical activities and stimulus prompts drawn from the cemetery and the lives of its occupants.

Light refreshments will be included.

Facilitators

Dr Andrew Griffiths, School of English and Creative Writing, the Open University. Andrew is a cultural historian of the nineteenth century. He mostly writes about print media history, literary journalism and war reporting.

Janine Marriott, Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust Public Engagement Manager.  Janine works to engage people in the cemetery and also researches historic garden cemeteries, dark tourism and dark heritage spaces. 

Dr Bethan Michael-Fox, School of English and Creative Writing, the Open University. Beth is co-host of The Death Studies Podcast, managing editor of the academic journal Mortality and a council member for the Association for the Study of Death and Society.

Dr Joanne Ella Parsons, Senior Lecturer English and Creative Writing, Falmouth University. Joanne is editor of the University of Wales Press book series Studies in Romance, Power, and Desire, founder and co-chair of the International Women's Writing Association, and editor/author of Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love (British Library 2024) and 13 Cornish Ghost Stories (Mabecron, 2024).

This event is supported by the Open University’s Academic Communities Fund.