Reviews 

Professor Douglas Davies, a longstanding friend and colleague. He has been an invaluable member of the Death Studies academic community and is currently Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. 

​

This is a book I love, not just because of Jenny and Carol’s honesty in explaining why they became engaged in death-focused studies in the first place, nor because it establishes a deeply reflexive academic genre all of its own, but because it shows the creative outcome of long-term friendships in life, scholarly thought, and feeling, framed through real hindsight wisdom. Read more ... Its entangled accounts of family histories prompted this post-war baby to ponder afresh just how twentieth century wars pervasively marred lives and relationships in my own family. And how different it is to think of oneself as a post-war baby rather than as a baby-boomer! Sociological labels have a lot to answer for! - but not in this networked biography where individualism dissolves into mutuality through the researched emotional identities of kin and friendship to engender a volume that stands alone in Death Studies.

As so much has been written about death, this particular genre offers new scope. It is, within itself, complex, yet graspable. 

 

Grace Huxford, University of Bristol, UK

Hockey and Komaromy are two of the leading theorists of Death Studies and their extensive work in this field make this monograph not only profoundly interesting, but crucially important to the historical and sociological disciplines. 

​

Arnar Árnason, Aberdeen University, UK

A hugely original and significant contribution to the field of death studies and related interests in loss and trauma. 

​

Family Life, Trauma and Loss in the Twentieth Century is a rich and engaging memoir that can be accessed by all, regardless of professional background or specialty. Indeed, its wide scope means that it will appeal to anyone interested in genealogy, material culture, military and social history, as well as death studies.” (Laura Towers, Mortality, Vol. 24 (1), 2019)