The author has become a figurehead for people who see death as something to embrace rather than recoil from. The body of a woman – who is called Laura – is carefully wrapped in a coral-tinted shroud and placed on a smooth concrete pyre. Surrounded by those who’d known and loved her (as well as the author, who’d been invited to observe), the body gradually turns to ash beneath. The ceremony takes place at the only open-air pyre in the western world and is one of alternative funerals that Doughty explores. Doughty may cut a somber figure with her blunt-cut black bangs and funereal attire, but her sense of humor and worldview are far more impish than diabolical.

Source: The Guardian October 27, 2017 13:07 UTC