A ring of spectacular cemeteries, developed at the edges of London in the decade from 1832, have long been referred to as The Magnificent Seven. At the time, they set a new aesthetic for the burial of the dead, and remain rich in social history and beauty to this day. It was entrepreneurs, rather than the religious authorities, who responded to the squalor of the City's brimming churchyards by fi nancing seemly, hygienic concepts of burial in the rural outskirts, now embraced by inner London. The Seven became showcases for neoclassical and neo-Gothic architecture, matched by splendid - sometimes eccentric - memorials recording Victorian society, and the sweep of London's history to the present day. From grand Kensal Green in the west to modest Tower Hamlets in the east; from heady Highgate to charming Norwood and Nunhead; and from the military influences of Brompton to the Non-conformist woodland of Abney Park - a host of characters and stories are visited in this distinctive coverage of the subject.

Twenty-first-century Gothic
Hardcover: 180 pages
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing; New edition edition (1 Oct 2010)
ISBN-10: 1443823899 ISBN-13: 978-1443823890
Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.8 x 2.4 cm

The essays in this volume reinterpret and contest the Gothic cultural inheritance, each from a specifically twenty-first century perspective. Most are based on papers delivered at a conference held, appropriately, in Horace Walpole's Gothic mansion at Strawberry Hill in West London, which is usually seen as the geographical origin of the first, but not the last, of the many Gothic revivals of the past 300 years.

As the first of its kind to be published in this country it is ground breaking and deeply fascinating. This is an elegantly written book with not a word wasted. As a pioneering study it should be required reading for those with responsibility for cemeteries. The Journal of the Institute of Cemetery Crematorium Management A pioneering study, The Secret Cemetery is essential to our understanding of modern burial culture Julie Rugg, Cemetery Research Group, University of York If Mediterranean cemeteries are little cities, and American ones parks, the English cemetery is a garden. This sensitive ethnography shows how Londoners construct, objectively and subjectively, the grave as a garden and a second home.

  The Tombstone Tourist: Musicians
Scott Stanton / Paperback 480 pages Published 2003

The final resting places of over 200 of the 20th century's late musical greats, from Howlin' Wolf to Benny Goodman to Janis Joplin. From France's Gothic Pere Lachaise Cemetery (where the remains of Chopin and Jim Morrison lie) to Hollywood's Forest Lawn (home to the bones of Karen Carpenter, Andy Gibb, and Liberace),
Profiled alphabetically, the life, music, death, shrines, archives, and burial site of each musician is interesting and insightful, and the black-and-white photographs are a nice touch.
This is a NEW Edition, with extra entries & new photos, some supplied by The Adams Residence

Who's Buried Where [new edn]:
Douglas Greenwood, 2006 Edition, (New edition) Publisher: Constable [Hardcover]
 The final resting places of illustrious men and women exercise a mysterious attraction to the traveller, and in this book the burial sites of over 350 prominent figures in English history are listed with a wealth of interesting detail.

London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer
by Hugh Meller (Author), Brian Parsons (Author) Hardcover: 416 pages    2008

The book is divided in two. Part one records the origins of London's cemeteries and includes introductory chapters on cemetery history, planning, architecture, epitaphs and natural history. Part Two is a gazetteer with descriptions of all the cemeteries in Greater London, together with short biographies of the celebrated people buried in them. There are two indexes, one listing the names of those in the gazetteer, and a second naming the architects, landscapers and sculptors whose work is represented in the cemeteries. The text is illustrated throughout with contemporary photographs and a wide range of rarely seen archive images."London Cemeteries" is an important source for biographical and genealogical research, and a compendium of material for the architectural historian. Social and local historians will also find much of interest here.

This fourth edition of a classic work incorporates much new research, as well as twelve more cemeteries - making it the most comprehensive survey of the subject ever published. This is the fourth edition of a classic book published in 1981. It is completely revised text and brand new illustrations. It is only work of reference that includes all London cemeteries: twelve more added in this new edition

London's Cemeteries by Darren Beach
Paperback: 231 pages

Offering information you will need to explore over fifty cemeteries to be found in the capital, this pocket guide includes information on where notable people are buried from Sid James to Karl Marx.

Necropolis: London and Its Dead by Catharine Arnold
Paperback: 304 pages

a fascinating study of London's status as centuries-old burial ground, and how the city's relationship to death and its dead has played a pivotal role in its history. It begins with the Neolithic tribal settlements in the area which became the capital, moving onto Roman ritual and burial and then,in the post-Pagan centuries, the vast differences in the treatment of death via Christian belief. Medieval death, plague and the notion of ars moriendi (the art of dying well) are explored, as is the Great Fire of 1665, the population boom of the following two centuries. The crystalisation of Victorian attitudes to grief and mourning naturally take up a great deal of the book, as do the completions of the vast (then) out-of-town cemeteries such as Kensall Green and of course Highgate, after the massive scandals of the Resurrection-Men, mass burials, cholera and the public health horrors of the mid-1800s. Moving on from the nineteenth century, Arnold argues that the intricate and established cult of grief long-held in Victorian London necessarily had to alter after the mass deaths of WWI made intimate mourning and, indeed, graveside reveries, impossible and contrived in the face of rapidly advancing, agnostic modernity.

The Undertaking, Tales from the Dismal Trade.
Thomas Lynch
The American poet, Thomas Lynch, is also hired to bury the dead, to cremate them and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In the conduct of these duties he has kept his eyes open and his ears tuned to the vernacular sound of love and grief.

also in paperback

Permanent Italians : An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of Italy
Judi Culbertson, Tom Randall / Paperback / Published 1996

Permanent Londoners : Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of London
Judi Culbertson, Tom Randall / Paperback / Published 1991

Permanent Parisians : An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of Paris
Judi Culbertson, Tom Randall / Paperback / Published 1991

 London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide & Gazetteer
Hugh Meller

This work records the cemeteries of London, describing their rich variety of buildings, monuments, epitaphs and flora and fauna. It also deals with cemetery history, planning, architecture and natural history. Altogether, 103 cemeteries are covered, along with the famous people buried there.

Going Out in Style : The Architecture of Eternity
Douglas Keister, Xavier Cronin

Depicts the endless variety of mausoleum styles in cemeteries across the United States...the book features dozens of full-color photographs portraying the majesty and mystique of the private mausoleum

Saving Graces : Images of Women European Cemeteries
David Robinson
In many cemeteries, particularly in Europe, one can find 19th-century sculptures of idealized images of women, elaborately posed and sculpted with great care and artistic flair. David Robinson's photographs capture the sensual beauty and mystery of these lifelike sculptures. In her foreword, Joyce Carol Oates explores the many implications of the grief-stricken, extremely provocative female figures - the obsession with mortality, the rituals of mourning, the conflation of death and the erotic, and the perfect female form as a male fantasy and a symbol of status.

also
Beautiful Death : Art of the Cemetery
David Robinson, Dean R. Koontz / Hardcover / Published 1996
Intriguing look at death - and the way people attempt to come to terms with it in funerary monuments and graveside gestures. Robinson roamed the cemeteries of Europe, including Pere-Lachaise, Montparnasse and Montmartre in Paris, the cemete ries of London and village churchyards in England, the Jewish Cemetery in Prague, and cemeteries across France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy
now out of print Find "Beautiful Death : Art of the Cemetery" by David Robinson on BookFinder.com

Epitaphs and Images from Scottish Graveyards
Betty Willsher

This is an illustrated collection of epitaphs divided into sections, such as death, resurrection, the professions and trades, eulogies and epitaphs quaint and curious.

Highgate Cemetery, Victorian Valhalla
Photographs by John Gay, Text by Felix Barker.

Excellent B&W Photos, well reseached history of Highgate Cemetery.

now out of print
Find "Highgate Cemetery, Victorian Valhalla" by Felix Barker on BookFinder.com

 Journal of a Ghosthunter
Simon Marsden

During a year-long journey beginning in southern Ireland and progressing through the British Isles, France and Germany to the mountains of Transylvania, photographer Marsden sought out Europe's most haunted locations. His black and white images reveal the ruins where lost souls still roam.

The Haunted Realm
Simon Marsden

Photographer Simon Marsden's interest in the supernatural began in childhood as he played hide-and-seek in the attic of his family's ancient house, ever vigilant for the appearance of the "family ghost". It wasn't until later that he discovered the craft of photography and developed an enduring fascination with the magic of time and light, and the enigma of "reality" that these elements conjure up.

 Awful Ends
David M. Wilson

This anthology of funeral inscriptions, both real and fictional, is gathered from sources all over the British Isles and America.

The Art of Remembering
Harriet Frazer, Lucy Lambton (Introduction)

Published to coincide with an exhibition at Blickling Hall, this book celebrates the skills of independent memorial makers and lettering artists. It contains photographs of all 54 works in the exhibition, along with essays on life, death, spirituality, the English tradition of memorials and the controversy over churchyard rules and regulations.

 The Art of Death
Nigel Llewellyn
Paperback - 160 pages Reaktion Books

Visual culture in the English death ritual

Death in England
Peter Jupp (Editor), Clare Gittings (Editor)

A social history of death from the earliest times to Diana, Princess of Wales. As we discard the 20th century taboo about death, this book charts the story of the way in which our forebears coped with a fundamental aspects of their daily lives. The book reveals how attitudes, practices and beliefs about death have undergone constant change: how, why and at what ages people died; plagues and violence; wills and deathbeds; funerals and memorials; beliefs and bereavement. This wide-ranging analysis of death in England is illustrated throughout with photographs and images, their diversity reflecting and breadth of issues and periods covered.

 Bearing the Dead : The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria (Literature in History)
by Esther Schor

Mourning as a cultural phenomenon has become opaque to us in the twentieth century, Schor argues. This book is an effort to recover the culture of mourning that thrived in English society from the Enlightenment through the Romantic Age, and to recapture its meaning. Mourning appears here as the social diffusion of grief through sympathy, as a force that constitutes communities and helps us to conceptualize history.