#165 Get Ahead of Being Dead with Evie King

Get Ahead of Being Dead is Evie King’s new book. In this discussion Evie shares why the book has been written and takes us on a journey through the chapters in classic Evie King style. Listen, learn…and laugh too.

Key messages

• Evie reflects on her first book, Ashes to Admin and her role as a council funeral officer

• We talk about the lack of legislation, standards, and consistency in council funerals across the UK

• Evie shares her growth into campaigning, training, and policy influence 

• Escalating funeral poverty, gaps in DWP support, and the emergence of loan sharks are explored as financial reality for many

• Evie shares her passion that council funerals are “real funerals”, not second-class services

• Evie shares the story behind the latest book, her new book Get Ahead of Being Dead

• We explore the brilliant chapters and content of Get Ahead of Being Dead

Resource

• Read Ashes to Admin

• Order your copy of Get Ahead of Being Dead (out on 18 June 2026)

• Access the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 You are here: UK Public General Acts1984 c. 22 Part IIIDisposal of Dead Bodies Section 46 

• Get help with funeral costs: Get help with funeral costs (Funeral Expenses Payment)  

• Read theSunlife report Evie mentions at:  The UK’s longest-running study into funeral costs over the last 22 years 

• Read the book Evie highlights: What Remains?: Life, Death and the Human Art of Undertaking 

• Access info on Go As You Please Funerals 

Bio

Evie King does not exist, but the person who plays her is a council worker and writer. A former stand-up comedian, she has always written short-form pieces in the margins of her various day jobs, contributing to New Humanist, Guardian Comment Is Free, BBC Comedy and Viz. After moving to the seaside and going part-time she had more time for writing and in 2023 completed her first book, Ashes to Admin, about her job arranging council funerals. It sold over 10,000 copies, was selected by Stewart Lee for the London Review of Books one hundred books for the next twenty years collection and won the 2025 ASDS (Association for the Study of Death & Society) Award for outstanding and original books in the field of death studies. Her second book, Get Ahead of Being Dead, is out in June 2026. She also contributed to the book Words to Live and Die By, a series of death haikus compiled by the acute palliative care team at Warwick Hospital. She is an ambassador for missing persons and cold-case charity Locate International and heads the UK training programme for council funeral workers.