With Alan Cowell, Aviva Dautch, Giles Fraser and Harvey Belovski
A look at life writing in brief, sometimes hastily put together forms from obituary and eulogy, to epitaph and elegy.
People often congratulate you for getting it right, but summing up a loved one’s life in words can be challenging. How do the experts do it? The House of Life invites a profile writer, a Christian minister and a poet to share their best stories and insights into their craft.
Contributors
Alan Cowell
Author, former foreign correspondent and, currently, obituarist for The New York Times. He wrote a definitive account of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer poisoned with polonium. His most recent works have been fictional – a political thriller entitled Permanent Removal set in Nelson Mandela’s South Africa, and Cat Flap, a novel of feline whimsy set in pre-coronavirus London.
Giles Fraser
Canon Dr Giles Fraser is the Rector of St Mary Newington, a poet, and a columnist for Unherd. He was previously Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral and a lecturer in Philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford. His forthcoming book is Chosen: Lost and Found between Christianity and Judaism (Penguin, 2021)
Aviva Dautch
Aviva Dautch’s poems are published widely, including in Rowing Home: The Cruse Anthology of Poems on Bereavement. Recent commissions include the British Museum for Refugee Week, and Bradford and Hay Literature Festivals for the Gustav Klimt Centenary. Aviva’s work-in-progress collection, We Sigh For Houses, received an Authors’ Foundation Award from The Society of Authors and was the subject of a Radio 4 poetry programme (August 2020).
Chair
Harvey Belovski
Previously rabbi of two communities in East London, Harvey Belovski has been rabbi of Golders Green Synagogue since 2003. He read mathematics at University College, Oxford, received rabbinic ordination from Gateshead Talmudical College and holds postgraduate degrees from the University of London in organisational psychology (MSc) and hermeneutics (PhD). He is chief strategist and rabbinic head of University Jewish Chaplaincy, principal of Rimon Jewish Primary School, lead for rabbinic recruitment at the United Synagogue, rabbi of Kisharon, a relationship counsellor and rabbinic consultant. He is engaged in a number of interfaith and community cohesion initiatives and is a trustee of the HOPE not hate Charitable Trust and a faculty member of the Senior Faith in Leadership Programme. He has authored three books and is a regular live contributor to the BBC Radio 2 Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. He is married to Vicki, the editor of Hamodia UK and they have seven beautiful children.
O for obituary
Alan Cowell
Giles Fraser
Aviva Dautch
Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski
