Book Launch: When Words Are Not Enough (LIVE EVENT)

About the event

We are delighted to formally launch When Words Are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief, a new book by Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds.

Everyone grieves for someone at some point in their lives. But how do we deal with the silence that often surrounds grief? How do we find ways to express painful feelings when words are not enough?

In this deeply personal and beautiful reflection on grief Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds draw on their own experience of loss, and how the death of their son Josh has led to a creative response that is more than word bound. 

In 2011 Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds’ son Joshua died in a road accident while travelling in Vietnam. In the years that followed they founded The Good Grief Project, a UK based charity to support other bereaved families and to promote their understanding of grief as creative and active process. This book follows their journey. It also tells the story of 13 other bereaved people who have also found a creative response to their grief.

The emphasis on ‘continuing bonds’ and their own way of maintaining a relationship with Josh, is both emotional and practical. Echoed in the other case studies they illustrate how creativity can shape a future where the deceased still play a part even while physically absent and how this is a normal and restorative aspect of the grieving process. Grief can also be a wonderful educator with new discoveries to be had.

“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. Jane and Jimmy have done an extraordinary thing, through their immense loss and pain they have chosen to redefine grief as love turned inside out and walk alongside the bereaved. They make grief less scary. I have not read a better book on grief.”  Annalisa Barbiere – THE GUARDIAN