"“Most people think only fleetingly about how they will die, and usually it surrounds some romantic notion of dying in our sleep at home,” said Allan Kellehear, Professor of Sociology at the University of Bath and author of the new book A social history of dying. “This notion couldn’t be further from the truth... Dying today is becoming increasingly tragic and antisocial. The way we die is important because it is the last act of life, and plays an important role in how our friends and relatives will remember us."
A Social History of Dying - a great secondary text for any obit writer.