The 1853 Burial Act introduced changes that would affect every English town and village outside London. New cemeteries looked set to replace the centuries-old churchyard, removing the dead from the heart of the community, and burial became a scientific rather than a spiritual concern. The secularisation of burial has long been regarded as an essential symbol of modernity, but was this process so straightforward? This study challenges a long-standing tendency to regard the churchyard as inherently 'traditional' and the cemetery as essentially 'modern.' This fascinating volume reviews the...