Ru Callender
Photo: Andy BloorAs founder of Devon's Green Funeral Company, Ru Callender is the world's first punk undertaker.
His book What Remains? is not only the story of his life and work but also an exploration of our capacity to face death with courage and compassion.
Ru will be in conversation with longtime Caught by the River contributor and regular quiz master Roy Wilkinson.
He was moved to become an undertaker through his experience of bereavement and its aftermath. Ru spent much of his childhood in the hospice where his mother worked, and the caring, humanistic philosophy of the hospice movement is central to his work.
He opened the Green Funeral Company with Claire in 2000, and the company is now among the country’s best-known eco-friendly funeral directors; in 2012 they won Joint Best Funeral Director at the first Good Funeral Awards and were described as ‘The best undertakers of all time, by a country mile’ by Good Funeral Guide author, Charles Cowling. Ru and Claire spoke at TEDx Totnes on Death, grief, ritual and radical funerals.
