Wednesday 11 June 2025 6.30-7.30pm UK time. Hybrid talk - In person and Online 

How did ordinary people depart this life and grieve for loved ones - and which of the old ways might help us prepare for the end?

Our ancestors, living closer to death than we do, had a more intimate and integrated relationship with death as a familiar presence in daily life. From early modern death-watchers to the pomp of Victorian funeral wear, by way of plague pits, grave-robberies and wakes, historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped - and been shaped by - society. She examines, through the prism of past deaths, their interweaving with our beliefs and politics, our most fervent hopes and deepest fears and, ultimately, what it means to 'die well'. A groundbreaking new work of social history, No Ordinary Deaths paints a rich picture of the lives of our forebears, skillfully bringing the lost art of death to life today.

About our speaker

Molly Conisbee is a social historian and visiting research fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. She has a PhD from the University of Bristol and has spent the last ten years researching the social history of death and mourning. Conisbee is also a trainee bereavement counsellor, has curated walks on the history of death around the country and has written for the Guardian and Ecologist.