Rowan writes: The way society treats the dead is not only fascinating in its own right - it says a lot about how we treat the living. Anyone who's been amused by Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One or appalled by Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death will know what an intriguing subject this can be - and Catharine Arnold's history, from Neolithic barrows to Victorian bombazine and beyond, does not disappoint.

Catharine Arnold read English at Cambridge and holds a further degree in psychology. A journalist, academic and popular historian, Catharine's previous books include the novel "Lost Time", winner of a Betty Trask award, and "Necropolis: London and Its Dead", the first of her projected London trilogy.