Win: New Book
The Undertaker’s Guide to Love, Loss & Other Messy Things is a debut novel by Adam Prior.
A warm, darkly funny, and quietly hopeful novel about grief, friendship, and the stubborn persistence of life, The Undertaker’s Guide to Love, Loss & Other Messy Things is one of the most assured and affecting debut novels of the year.
In the small Welsh coastal town of Morfaeth, everyone knows Ben Reeves. He’s the undertaker with the dead wife. Ben knows how to deal with loss – it’s the rest of life he’s less prepared for. Since Jo died, the days have been carefully ordered: work, routine, the occasional walk by the sea. It’s a life that functions, just about, until friendships, community, and unexpected possibilities begin to edge their way back in.
As Ben slowly learns that loss doesn’t mean life is over, he is forced to confront the things he has been avoiding – love, change, and the uncomfortable truth that carrying on might actually be allowed. The result is a novel that is funny without being flippant, tender without being mawkish, and hopeful without being naive.
Perfect for readers who love thoughtful contemporary fiction with emotional depth, wit, and stories about love, friendship, and second chances.
Author, Adam Prior spent decades building businesses and advising other people on theirs. Along the way he wrote articles, columns, and the occasional business book, but fiction was always the thing he circled without quite landing on… Until now.
The Undertaker’s Guide to Love, Loss & Other Messy Things is his debut novel, written in the conditions that suited him best: semi-retirement, a home in the Shropshire Hills, and a healthy disregard for doing things the conventional way. He writes about the people who show up uninvited and stay anyway, the friendships that form in unlikely places, and the stubborn comedy that persists even when life is being thoroughly difficult.
Adam lives in rural Shropshire with his long-suffering wife, two university children who return home with suspicious regularity, two dogs, and a parrot who has made its feelings about him abundantly clear. He walks a lot (it helps).
His second novel, Friends in Low Places, is due for publication in 2027.
— COMPETITION —
Ipswich24 has got a copy of the book The Undertaker’s Guide to Love, Loss & Other Messy Things by Adam Prior to give away to lucky readers. To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous prize just send you answer to the following question, along with your name, address and a contact telephone number to: The Undertakers Guide Competition, Ipswich24, 69 Brunswick Road, Ipswich, IP4 4BS or you can enter below. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 30th June 2026.
REMEMBER only one entry PER HOUSEHOLD for online entries.
Q. What is the name of the Undertaker in the book The Undertaker’s Guide to Love, Loss & Other Messy Things by Adam Prior?