Archaeology of Loss, with Sarah Tarlow

“When you find your husband lying dead, you think you will not forget a single detail of that moment. As an archaeologist, I like to get my facts right, and I will try my best to do so, but five years have passed since that day in 2016 and I am excavating my own unreliable memory. I cannot go back and check.”

Sarah Tarlow’s husband Mark began to suffer from an undiagnosed illness, leaving him incapable of caring for himself. One day, about six years after he first started showing symptoms, Mark waited for Sarah and their children to leave their home before ending his own life.

Although Sarah had devoted her professional life to the study of death and how we grieve, she found that nothing could have prepared her for the reality of illness and the devastation of loss. In her book, Sarah describes a universal experience with an unflinching and singular gaze. With humour, intelligence and urgency, it is in its very honesty that it offers profound consolation.

As professor of historical archaeology at the University of Leicester, Sarah Tarlow is best known for her work on the archaeology of death and burial.

Sarah will be in conversation with Graham Caveney, whose book On Agoraphobia has just come out in paperback.

Read more about the roots of her book and talk here: www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/08/archaeologist-sarah-tarlow-the-archaeology-of-loss

Tickets are £4.00, or £17 including a copy of Sarah’s book. Refreshments are included.