Panoptica | Hayley Campbell (UK): All the Living and the Dead

Nitty-gritty. Death. Trade.

We are surrounded by death. It’s in the news, nursery rhymes and popular media. As ubiquitous as these stories is the message that “real” death is something to be feared. But how are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of when we are never given the chance to look?

Author and journalist Hayley Campbell explores the nitty-gritty details of death nobody wants to talk about in her book All the Living and the Dead. Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, Hayley explores its impact on those who work with it every day. Her personal investigation into the death trade led her to grave diggers, embalmers, mass fatality investigators, and a former executioner, responsible for ending 62 lives.

Panoptica is a coming together of curious minds to explore the full spectrum of the human experience in all its splendour, complexity and contradiction.

“If the reason we’re outsourcing this burden is because it’s too much for us” Hayley asks “how do they deal with it? Would facing death directly make us fear it less?”

Hayley Campbell is an author, broadcaster and journalist. Her work has appeared in WIRED, The Guardian, New Statesman, Empire, GQ and more. Her latest book, All the Living and the Dead, was published in 2022. She lives in London with her cat, Ned.