Hosted by Brookwood Cemetery and the Good Funeral Guide

This Death Cafe has taken place

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About this Death Cafe

These may be the first Death Cafe Picnics? We are running two Death Cafes at 'Going Green at Brookwood' 2018 to offer people the opportunity to come and discuss death in the beautiful surroundings of London's original necropolis. We will be picnicing on Gillian's meadow, which is a gorgeous open space, we will have the shade of two beautiful oak trees, and maybe even see a passing family of deer. Please bring a blanket to sit on, and a picnic if you wish. There will be tea and cake provided for death cafe participants. There will be another Death Cafe picnic at 1pm, at lunchtime.

The cake for this Death Cafe Picnic is sponsored by The Good Funeral Guide.

About Brookwood Cemetery and the Good Funeral Guide

This Death Cafe is facilitated by Emma Curtis, secular minister, opera singer, CBT-hypnotherapist, founder of Celebrant Support and CPD trainer of funeral celebrants.

Emma is the founder of Extraordinary Ceremonies, creating highly personalised funerals and memorial ceremonies based on the personalities and beliefs of those she serves, however individual. As a certified celebrant, thanatologist, grief specialist and therapist, she fully supports the bereaved through and beyond the funeral ceremony.  She is both a minister and pastoral counsellor ordained in the USA, and an independent celebrant trained in the UK.

Emma's thirty years on the international stage as a professional opera singer and actress support her expertise in presentation skills and public speaking. She has facilitated groups and workshops throughout her career, many focussed on voice, grief, play, laughter, creativity, confidence and presentation.

Emma was named runner-up in the Minister of the Year category of the 2017 Good Funeral Awards, the first non-religious minister to be recognised in this category. 

Emma teaches and mentors celebrants and ministers. She is the creator and facilitator of Time to Altar Grief, an ongoing secular altar for the community created from memorial art. She also runs death and grief positivity workshops for both adults and children and has presented at many festivals and events including the National Trust's Life. Death. Whatever., Belief and Beyond Belief at the Southbank Centre, for the British Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Royal Observatory Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum and for the Open University

Brookwood Cemetery first opened in 1854 and was at one time the largest cemetery in the world. Today, it continues to be the largest cemetery in Western Europe and since its opening, approximately 250,000 people have been laid to rest within the beautiful grounds.