Founder of Poetic Endings · Funeral director · Writer

Louise Winter

I founded Poetic Endings because I thought funerals could be better.

Before I became a funeral director, I worked in the creative industries. I hadn't grown up around funerals or inherited a funeral business. I found my way here after my grandad died, and I've spent the years since asking what a funeral is really for and how we can do it well.

Get in touch Read my story

Portrait of Louise Winter outdoors — Louise Winter · Photograph by Melissa Rodrigues

Poetic Endings

Founder & funeral director

Writing

Co-author, We All Know How This Ends

Industry

Former editor, Good Funeral Guide

Speaking

TEDxKing’s College London

How it began

From fashion to funerals

The first funeral I ever attended was my grandad's. I was 25. It was an unfamiliar experience, but what struck me was how little the funeral seemed to reflect the person I knew.

At the time I was working in fashion and creative strategy. I decided to change direction and train as a funeral celebrant. That meant travelling across London to lead ceremonies, working with many different funeral directors and seeing, close up, what made a difference to people.

Eventually I founded Poetic Endings. I wanted to create a funeral service that took the practical responsibilities seriously, but didn't assume that every funeral should follow the same formula.

Today our funeral home is in Forest Hill and we arrange funerals throughout London. Some are traditional church services. Others take place in woodland, at a crematorium or in an entirely different setting. Sometimes the best thing we can help someone arrange is something very simple.

Read my interview in The Guardian

“In the event of my death, I give you permission to do whatever you want and need to do.”

My own funeral wishes, as described in an interview with Funeral Guide. I came to this after years of helping other people arrange funerals.

At Poetic Endings

What matters to me

I'm interested in funerals that make sense to the people arranging them. That's not the same as making every funeral unusual, or filling a ceremony with personal touches for the sake of it.

Genuine choice

People should know what is possible, what things cost and what they can decide for themselves. Funeral directing shouldn't mean being presented with a set of unquestionable traditions.

Good practical care

The arrangements, the care of the person who has died and the details of the day matter just as much as the ceremony. Imagination isn't a substitute for doing the job properly.

Room to be yourself

A funeral can involve faith, music, poetry, quiet, laughter or none of those things. We listen first, then help people decide what is right for them.

A woodland burial with mourners gathered around a coffin — Steve Mead's woodland funeral, 2020 · Photograph used with kind permission from Fran Hall

The book · Bloomsbury · 2021

We All Know How This Ends

Anna Lyons & Louise Winter

I wrote We All Know How This Ends with Anna Lyons, an end-of-life doula and my collaborator on Life. Death. Whatever.

It's about death and dying, but it's also about living: the conversations we avoid, the assumptions we make, and what happens when we start speaking more openly about mortality.

Our experiences working with people at the end of life and after a death informed the book. So did the questions people asked us — and those they didn't know they were allowed to ask.

Find out more about the book

In print

Writing & journalism

I've written about funerals, death and how we live with the knowledge that life ends. Here are three pieces that give a better sense of my thinking.

The Guardian · 2019 · Opinion

Funerals should be personal, but new coffin colours aren't the answer

Why a thoughtful funeral is about much more than choosing something different from a catalogue.

Read the article

British Vogue · 2021 · With Anna Lyons

Should everyone have an end-of-life doula?

Writing about death, connection and care during the pandemic, from our different perspectives.

Read the article

The Guardian · 2017 · Interview

The bespoke funeral director: handling death differently

An early account of how I found my way into funeral directing and why the way we arrange funerals matters.

Read the interview

TEDxKing's College London · 2017

This Could Be the Last Time

My TEDx talk asks what might change if we remembered that our time together is finite. Not in a morbid way, but as a way of taking ordinary life a little less for granted.

I've also contributed to conversations about funerals and death on BBC London, BBC Radio 4 and BBC News, as well as in other interviews and events.

Watch the TEDx talk

Beyond Poetic Endings

Working for better funerals

Funeral directing isn't only about the funerals we arrange. I also care about the information people receive, what they're charged and the standards the profession is expected to meet.

Good Funeral Guide

I was editor of the Good Funeral Guide, an independent source of information and comment about funerals and funeral directing.

Visit the Good Funeral Guide

Life. Death. Whatever.

With Anna Lyons I co-founded Life. Death. Whatever., a festival and wider project making space for less guarded conversations about mortality.

Explore the project

Funeral-sector reform

Poetic Endings submitted evidence and proposals to the Competition and Markets Authority's funeral-sector investigation, particularly on transparency, choice and care.

Read our published response

Outside work

A few other things

I'm interested in poetry, food, fashion and the natural world. I love growing roses, spending time with my cat Bella, and being in the mountains. There is more to life than funerals — although the job has probably made me more aware of that than ever.

Poetic Endings · Forest Hill · London

Get in touch

If you'd like to talk about arranging a funeral, planning ahead or visiting our funeral home in Forest Hill, you're welcome to contact Poetic Endings. The team arranges funerals throughout London.

Contact Poetic Endings Call 020 4525 8318