LETTER: Coffin-U-Like

From Ms Paula Rainey Crofts

Sir: In response to your editorial "Say Goodbye to the British Way of Death" (31 January), I would like to say that I offer customers the choice of cardboard coffins, woollen shrouds, or conventional caskets. I also organise woodland burial sites, burial at sea, cemetery burial or cremation.

I encourage my customers to take control by planning in advance. This personal involvement and choice have been found to have beneficial therapeutic effects.

You say that only celebrities seem to be able to "break the rules". I regard all our customers as celebrities and their funerals a celebration of their lives, and I make sure that customers' requests are met (within law and decorum). At present, I am designing a Red Arrow jet/coffin, inspired by the fantasy coffins of Ghana, two of which we have on display: a Mercedes Benz and a "pirogue" (war canoe).

Yours sincerely,

Paula Rainey Crofts

Heaven on Earth

Bristol