When Words are Not Enough explores the many ways that bereaved families find to express their loss. The authors' son was killed in a traffic accident in 2011. Ten years on they reflect on their journey and how they have used their creativity to survive their grief and create a new relationship with their son Josh. The charity they created, The Good Grief Project, is based on ideas that flow from the concept of 'continuing bonds', of not wanting to cut off from the deceased, but of building a new kind of relationship with the deceased.
Their mission is to support families grieving after the untimely death of a loved one, particularly the death of a child. And to promote an understanding of what it means to grieve in a society that often has difficulty talking openly about death, dying and bereavement.
Grieving is hard work - it is tough, emotional and very challenging work. It is full of contradictions - we are trying to forget the pain and remember our loved one at the same time. But while it can be a very lonely experience, grief can also be a wonderful educator with new discoveries to be had.
'When Words Are Not Enough is our attempt to bridge the divide between the silence that surrounds grief and the lived experience of the bereaved.' Jane Harris
'Over time we have come to realise that our grief has been a series of creative acts.' Jimmy Edmonds
Beautifully illustrated, the book explores their own responses to Josh's death along with contributions from 14 others who have also found solace from doing and creating new things following the death of a loved one.
Industry Reviews
'This is a book about sorrow, yet it is brimming with hope. This is a book about loss, but it overflows with love and generosity. The community of bereaved people is as diverse as humanity itself, and this book is a gathering of their wisdom, guided and curated by the creative talents and parental grief of Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds.' Dr Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind and Listen; 'In the absence of any collective rituals or words with which to express their loss, this wonderful and very personal book offers those who find themselves in an agonising wilderness of grief, a kind of creative map to find a way out of the isolation.' Juliet Stevenson, Actor; 'When Words are Not Enough shows us that searing loss isn't necessarily the end, but a possible beginning. It's an exploration with whatever means one has at one's disposal - visual arts, the written word, even wild swimming - to mark, mourn, remember, salve and to create a tangible from a loss, some order from the arbitrary.' Greg Wise, Actor ; 'The word I keep coming back to with this book is beautiful, not a word I would usually associate with grief. But this book is rich in detail and compassion, it is authoritative and kind. Through their immense loss and pain Jane and Jimmy have done an extraordinary thing and redefined grief as love turned inside out. They make grief less scary. I have not read a better book on grief.' Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian; 'When Words are Not Enough offers that rarest of bereavement resources - a visual and verbal feast and a sustained look into the heart of grief that both acknowledges the raw anguish of tragic loss and invites the reader to share a fascinating and varied gathering of responses to it. I recommend it highly to all those who mourn, and all those who strive to accompany them through the experience.' Prof Robert Neimeyer, Director, Portland Institute for Loss and Transition.
