![“People are surprised at how beautiful our dead look,” says counsellor, celebrant and “death consultant” Victoria Spence.](/web/20161108235441im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/g/s/r/l/image.related.wideLandscape.620x349.gsgsum.grbrys.png/1478237540941.jpg)
Last rites: bringing death back home
Many Australians are in denial about dying. Blame decades of outsourcing the entire end-of-life business, say the experts now working to wind back our fears.
Many Australians are in denial about dying. Blame decades of outsourcing the entire end-of-life business, say the experts now working to wind back our fears.
Her Instagram presence is too perfect for some, but this beauty writer, entrepreneur and novelist has reasons for focusing on the "shiny, fun stuff".
She fell in love with pro-wrestling on TV as a teenager. Now she's at it six days a week.
From revving sessions to poetry readings, occasional nudity to mullet-cutting, the annual Deni Ute Muster celebrates a slice of ’Straya.
Infidelity has become big business: but can marriage survive one partner's urge to "feel alive again"?
Lessons learnt from a day watching the (fantastically biased) American cable news networks.
A whiff of something unsavoury brings a mother and daughter closer together. But first there are taboos to air, crisp linen to buy and exercises to do.
University students in Texas now have the right to carry concealed firearms on campus, a trend that has the police deeply worried.
The young Queen Victoria was nervous before her 1840 wedding to Albert, but what she described later was quite at odds with her era’s killjoy puritanism.
Wilderness, waterfalls, wildlife, wonder: the pristine Kimberley region is not only vast, but largely undiscovered.
James Dack clawed his way from a housing commission terrace to become Australia's top real estate agent. Why did he quit?
Di Morrissey seems to have it all: a big house, doting partner, a legion of fans. Well, everything but a literary award …
Best mates Oliver Curtis and John Hartman figured out how to make it rain cash. Until the law caught up with them.
Victorian country boy turned Vikings star Travis Fimmel's talent for understatement is earning him big roles in Hollywood.
A Young Talent Time winner at the age of nine, Danielle de Niese has gone on to become one of the world’s leading opera sopranos.
A little bit of misery goes a long way – especially when Marlon Williams sings. It hurts, but in a good way.
Australian novelist Hannah Kent's intense historical research has paid off handsomely.
Local and international record labels are embracing this singer/songwriter's pacy rap.
Michael Zavros loves luxury, beauty and expensive objects. But is the painter’s glamorous lifestyle quite what it seems on canvas?
More than five years after Japan's devastating tsunami, some are still desperately looking for their loved ones.
In a chaotic world, embracing nature can help – for truly primeval wilderness, venture into a remote Tasmanian cave.
With early-onset Alzheimer’s comes the accentuating of deeply-ingrained habits, writes Daisy Dumas of her mother’s struggle.
Former champion athlete Paul Crake met his wife, Daniela Zanon, a year before an accident left him in a wheelchair.
I'm secretly adding more fibre to my husband's food. Should I tell him?
I take my haircuts seriously. It's taken trial and error, but here's what I've found.
With a mere gesture, this man can open locked doors, start his motorbike and log on to his computer.
These mass-made, dishwasher-proof pieces of china are incredibly precious.
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