Dead Good Legacies

05/04/2026

In our own family, we often take a creative and playful approach to grief and legacy. It really works for us.

Dad had a woodland burial and doesn't have a plaque or gravestone. So we honoured him a bit differently by hiding a stone sculpture that he made along a regular walking route of his in the Manifold Valley.

We hid it four years ago.

LV turned it into a geocache - an online international treasure hunting community - for others to seek and find.

This is one of the ways we remember our dad.

By retracing his footsteps.

And by getting strangers to find his weird little sculpture.

Love you bye

04/04/2026

It's been a year since my aunt sent me six of my dead dad's historic purple podded pea seeds.

They produced hundreds of pods and we saved over three hundred seeds. Most of which we swapped with you for donations to 🍉.

If we sent you seeds, it's time to get them planted!

Let's grow them together

Love you bye

03/04/2026

Have you heard about the Afterlives Art Festival?

It's coming to Newcastle City Library on 8+9 May.

We are part of the festival's programming and will be offering 8 readings to families of The Midnight Moth, followed by some interactive death education activities.

Afterlives Arts Festival is a free, family-friendly arts festival coming to Newcastle City Library, Exeter Library and Redbridge Central Library in May and June 2026, supported by Arts Council England.

Brought to life by a nationwide collaboration of libraries, artists, academics and community partners, Afterlives transforms your local library into a vibrant creative hub, a place where art, storytelling and community come together to make conversations about death feel natural, joyful and deeply human.

Across 36 events and six festival days, people will have the chance to explore life's biggest questions through hands-on workshops, stunning installations, live performance, film, virtual reality and community art — all free or low cost, and open to absolutely everyone.

Afterlives is the culmination of nearly a decade of pioneering work. In 2017, Redbridge Library Service became the UK's first Death Positive Library using books, art, film and community events to help local people engage openly with death and dying as a health and community issue.

Newcastle City Library joined the collaboration in 2019, extending this ground-breaking model from east London to the north east. Together the two services have won national awards for social innovation, health and wellbeing, and digital engagement via our co-designed Tickets for the Afterlife project. They inspired libraries across the UK and Northern Ireland to follow their lead, and reached hundreds of thousands of people with creative, compassionate programming around end-of-life choices.

The Death Positive Library movement is rooted in a simple but powerful belief: that libraries, as trusted, independent and genuinely open public spaces, are uniquely placed to hold these conversations, free from commercial interest, and open to everyone regardless of background, belief or experience.

See you in the library?

Love you bye

03/04/2026

We're part of the Afterlives festival in Newcastle on 8 + 9 May. We'll be in the Children's Library giving readings of The Midnight Moth and running mini ceremony workshops with families. All sessions are free thanks to funding by Arts Council England. WE LOVE LIBRARIES.

📚 What if talking about death could feel more joyful, creative — even community-owned?

This May and June, Dr Stacey Pitsillides from our School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries is bringing the Afterlives Arts Festival to public libraries in Newcastle, Exeter and Redbridge — using events involving art and storytelling to open up conversations about death, dying and end-of-life choices.

Stacey has spent nearly a decade helping to build the UK's Death Positive Library movement, a growing national network that uses books, art, film and community events to help people engage openly with death and dying as a health and societal issue.

The Afterlives Arts Festival takes this work to a national stage with 36 events across three cities, featuring public artwork, workshops, film nights, virtual reality experiences and much more.

💡 Follow the link in the comments to read more about the festival and explore the full programme.

The Death Positive Library
Newcastle Libraries
Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure
Libraries Unlimited
Arts Council England

03/04/2026

We are running an in-person afternoon event at Grave Expectations in Matlock (Derbyshire) on Saturday 25th April.

We'll be creating DIY zines (small creative booklets - pronounced zeeeeeens) about meaningful places in your life.

It's also a chance to create a personal 'memory map' or 'treasure hunt' for others to follow.

The session offers a creative, imaginative way to explore legacy and personal story whether as something to share now, gift to loved ones, or leave behind.

We're really looking forward to hearing your stories and helping you turn them into something tangible. Personal zines are an act of story keeping.

Make one about your life. Or make one about someone else's.

Come and spend the afternoon with us, Midlands friends!

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/graveexpectations/2135345?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAb21jcAQ8Sg9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAacrCDvE1cJOW-6L62kOvc-oUTqpRaEm3zUueRv2bdFM7PENieZh2L2CkQMQiw_aem_avCrh8yGb7aOhHC2n8XbvA

01/04/2026

The time has come for me and LV to work out how we want to be cared for when we are ill and/or dying. And to then present this set of detailed and quirksome care wishes in a format that can be easily shared with others.

Obviously, we are going to do this through the medium of DIY zines! Because collage and doodles make everything better. Always.

Writing our care wishes has been at the top of our life admin list for quite a while and NOW WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Do you want to start preparing yours too?

You can join us online for two hours with a small group in May.

Let's work out together what 'HANDLE WITH CARE' means in relation to our own personal care wishes. We're talking physically, mentally, emotionally and more. And then let's get it down in a colourful zine, ready to start conversations!

It is never too soon to get started on this.

Find out more via the link in our bio.

Love you bye

31/03/2026

We spent time with - Alexandra Derwen - in June last year. They gave a magnificent & moving opening address at the Natural Endings conference and we knew immediately that wanted to explore future collaborations.

Alexandra took part in our zine workshop, where we made memorial treasure maps! Then they invited us to be part of this year's Ash & Seed weekend, a creative collective space for grief and mourning.

Our maternal grandfather's family are from Herefordshire and the Welsh Borders so it feels good to know we'll be camping on the gentle hills of Ruthlands Farm.

We're currently designing a self-led guide of the Ash & Seed land that will invite embodied wandering and wondering during the event. You'll be peeping in hedgerows, following the stream, winding through the woodland and meandering in the meadows.

We'll also be running a zine workshop to support reflection and integration.

We're really looking forward to camping in our rainbow bell tent and spending time in community with other like-minded people. And we LOVE storytelling and live music so we're going to feel very at home.

Do let us know if you're going. We'd love to see you there.

And please share with others who might enjoy/need this.

We've added the link to our bio so you can find out more.



Love you bye

Photo credit:

29/03/2026

A couple of weeks ago, LV was part of an articulated lantern masterclass weekend at .

She was part of the team that made this Fire Fox.

It was an incredible experience. The lanterns were part of a public parade and performance in Stoke-on-Trent.

And LV connected with some inspirational artists and puppet-makers. We're already talking about future collaborations.

You can expect these new skills to start popping up in our future projects and commissions.

We also recommend checking out the work of the original Dead Good Guides (see the work of Welfare State International arts company).

Love you bye

28/03/2026

Have a look at some of the extra pages we've added to The Midnight Moth picturebook.

This book is an illustrated story and also a resource.

We've included pages at the end of the story to support gentle conversations about mortality and how to say goodbye in meaningful ways.

We'll be doing eight small group readings and ceremony workshops for families at the 2-day Afterlives Festival at Newcastle City Library in early May. Very excited to be bringing The Midnight Moth to the Children's Library!

The Midnight Moth is just one of the activities on the Afterlives programme. More info soon.

All the Afterlives readings, workshops and performances are free thanks to funding by Arts Council England.

Afterlives Festival: 8th & 9th May Newcastle City Library

We've also just agreed to give a number of talks about The Midnight Moth at the Just So Festival in August.

LV has been almost entirely focused on the final finishes to The Midnight Moth since we hit our crowdfunding target earlier this month.

She's had many conversations with our printer about the weights of paper stocks (which just means the thickness of the paper) and looked at some initial test prints as well.

We were also thrilled to be able to include four new illustrated moths, submitted by our top tier backers, into the pages of the book. They look brilliant.

Next week, LV will be sending the book off to have our printed proof made. We're nervous and excited. It feels like a big milestone. 

If you backed the book BUT haven't had an email from LV or Kickstarter about which address to post your book to, then please do email us at hello@deadgood.org so that we can make sure your receive your copy. 

Love you bye

27/03/2026

Rewilding deathcare in practice.

We are currently supporting a family with a woodland burial that will take place in two weeks.

Our first task was to help them choose the right natural burial ground in the region for them.

Yesterday, I (KV) visited their chosen site to meet the burial ground owner in person and to spend time at the grave location. I wandered slowly. I listened to the birds. I paid attention to the plants springing into life. I collected pheasant feathers from the woodland floor.

The family has bought a double plot, which, at this site, means two 'single depth' graves side by side. They've chosen Blue House Woodland Burials in Wingate, County Durham.

This natural burial ground is an established oak woodland. Families are encouraged to adopt an oak as 'their' tree and as the site of the grave (pair of graves in this instance). I love that families can choose a tree and choose their plot. Not something offered by all natural burial grounds sadly.

I am visiting the family again this afternoon to talk through ideas and inspiration for the graveside ceremony and committal.

As an aside, I am also really motivated to reserve my own woodland plot so that it can be built into the fabric of my current life as well as my future death.

* writes BUY GREEN GRAVE on to-do list *

Would you consider a natural burial? What would you want to know before you made your mind up?

Love you bye

26/03/2026

Its KV's birthday today and I promised to do a socials post so that she could fully take the day off.

I'm so glad that we get to spend so much time together these days, and that we are *friends* as well as business guys.

It hasn't always been the case (we were NOT easy going teenagers 😅) but we are the closest we have ever been, despite now living further away from each other than we ever have.

We talk every day, mainly by text and on zoom. It's lush! We spent most of our time together as children but drifted apart as teens. We needed time and space. I needed to become my own person as for years I was just trying to be Katy.

This picture is from 1981, posing with our cousins in the enchanted garden of our paternal grandparents, near Glastonbury. ❤️

Love you KV. Bye.



ID: two teenagers pose with little 1980s cousins on their backs, LV on the left and KV on the right. They are in a lush somerset UK garden with a cherished cherry plum tree in the background

24/03/2026

Comment below if you want to know when tickets are live.

Share with someone you know who lives in the Midlands and who might enjoy a few hours with the dead good sisters.

We're really looking forward to running a workshop together in-person. KV and LV in the same place at the same time! Doesn't happen very often.

SAVE THE DATE FOR NOW, PALS: 25th April 2026

More details coming very soon.

Thanks to Beccy of for the lovely invitation!

And thank you to previous participants on our creative legacy workshops, who've kindly let us share their work with you.

Loveyoubye