Spectator readers who were listening to the Today programme this morning would have experienced the sense of déjà lu from a segment on ‘death cafés’. These events, where people talk about mortality over a macchiato and a Danish pastry, have interested Spectator writers for some time. Last July Mark Mason visited a ‘death café’ and remarked how refreshing it was to hear people use the ‘D-word’.
The cafes are for taboo-breaking rather than mourning. Mark found that people had been drawn to them because society is so reluctant to talk about death, which is strange when one considers that death is life’s only certainty.
Death cafés may help the fit and healthy consider their mortality in the abstract; but what do those who are dying making of them? Spectator readers will remember our brilliant colleague Clarissa Tan, who died earlier this year after a two year fight with cancer.
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