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|title=A Tour of Bones: Facing Fear and Looking for Life

|sort=Tour of Bones: Facing Fear and Looking for Life, A

|publisher=Bloomsbury

|date=November 2014

|summary=Facing a basement full of bones and later a diagnosis of inoperable sarcoma, Inge toured some of Europe's notable charnel houses, pondering what remains of us after life and how to approach death with humility and awe. A splendid ''memento mori''.

}}

American-born Dr Denise Inge was an expert on seventeenth-century mystic poet Thomas Traherne, mother to two daughters, and wife to an Anglican clergyman. Her husband's appointment as Bishop of Worcester saw them move to a townhouse adjacent to Worcester Cathedral – and attached to a charnel house. Whatever to do with a basement full of bones? An even more pressing question was what to do with her fear of the death they represented, especially when Inge was diagnosed with inoperable sarcoma late in the writing process.

Further reading suggestion: [[Ammonites and Leaping Fish: A Life in Time by Penelope Lively]] ponders old age and memory, whilst [[Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes]] more specifically addresses the fear of death. For a much lighter book set partially in a crypt, try [[Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley]]. The Sedlec ossuary also inspired some scenes of [[The Alchemist and the Angel by Joanne Owen]].

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