Heaven on Earth

About Us Funerals Coffins Shop FAQs Publicity     Heaven on Earth 18 Upper Maudlin St Bristol BS2 8DJ tel / fax +44 (0)117 926 4999 email heaven.earth@virgin.net web heavenonearthbristol.co.uk

Publicity If you are interested in covering our unique business in one of your publications / programmes please contact us. We have attracted attention internationally, from Japan to Brazil, and have been featured in major magazine articles, tabloid newspapers and broadsheets, as well as national television. Television programmes BBC TV Close Up West and a Radio Bristol phone-in were broadcast to coincide with the opening our shop on the 31 March 1995. Since then we have been inundated with television features and radio broadcasts from all around the world. To list all the publicity that we have had would take much too long - but our favourites are The Middle Ages- Rites of Passage by Ray Gosling, BBC 1996; Funeral Rites, ITV 1996; Video Diary by John Bosley, BBC 1997 and Death in the UK (with Japanese voiceover), Japan TV 1997. Live TV shows "Thank you for coming up to Birmingham to appear on yesterday's Good Morning Summer. Everyone found the coffings (sic) fascinating and my producer was very pleased with the item, which covered a very interesting and provocative subject, Your participation was a great success....."Good Morning, June 1995. One Hundred Women: Funerals, Scottish Television , 1996. Newspaper Articles The success of her shop and the desire of people to find a place they can talk about death, so taboo elsewhere, has proved the growing need for her services." Venue, April 1996. For a shop so entirely devoted to death, you might expect at least some dark residue of grief to linger about its premises, but it doesn't and that of course is the whole point. It doesn't celebrate death or dying but that which Dylan Thomas called 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' - life." Evening Post, 6th October 1997 Britain's first designer death shop, Heaven on Earth in Bristol, has won this year's nomination for Best Funeral Shop, for its imaginative range of dual-function coffins. Before pushing up the daisies, admire them with the window-seat model - or how about the coffin as CD cabinet or shoe rack - somewhere to store your shoes before you pop your clogs. Independent on Sunday, 20 April 1997. Magazine Features Paula's new venture, a decorative shop called Heaven on Earth, sells 'life-enhancing' home and garden items." Homes & Antiques, September 1995 Although only a year old, Heaven on Earth has been awarded a prestigious international award....both a theme boutique and a place to arrange a funeral, it is a curious mixture of flippancy and sensitivity . . . Paula's quest is to provide a sympathetic environment in which death is treated much more as a part of life. 'Shop 'til you Drop', Esquire Magazine, May 1996. Paula Rainey Crofts' dark and overgrown garden is an ideal resting place - and suitably atmospheric for her alternative funeral business. Times Magazine, Saturday 19th September 1998. It's worth jumping into a cab to get here. The fare won't cost much. It's the place for furniture, candles and all sorts of interesting artifacts that make fab presents. Red Magazine, Secret Addresses Filofax ,1999. "He loved 'The Oldie'; he hated funerals. When X died his widow determined to have the most dignified, plain ceremony possible. Having tried the traditional route "our daughter asked if I would compromise. She knew Paula, who owns Heaven on Earth in Bristol, an international award-winner for improving the quality of death & dying. Would I meet Paula and see if we could work out a dignified, plain funeral, attended by only the immediate family? I liked Paula, and she understood exactly what we wanted. They had their own funeral car - not a dismal black hearse, but a silver Passat ...simple and just what we wanted." 'Death of an 'Oldie' reader', The Oldie, Issue 100, July 1997 This feature was also included in The Oldie Annual,1999 Pyschic News, 2000 Books in Which We Appear "Some people open shops to supply everyday needs such as bread, vegetables, socks and soap. Others open shops because of an interest. Paula is not only interested in living well but in dying well too. She opened Heaven on Earth, the first shop in the country where you can walk in and buy your own coffin." 'Paula Rainey Crofts: Shopkeeper', Working Lives, Carolyn Williamson (Harper Collins, 1997), an educational book for 9-11 year olds. "A coffin can seem such an extravagance; who needs a glorified container when they're six feet under? Paula Rainey Crofts has come up with the marvellous idea of doubling-up a coffin's uses. Her mother's coffin (happily not needed yet as she is very much alive) is currently being used as a bookcase. Paula has also created linen chests as well as spice racks out of what will eventually be someone's last home." 'Best for DIY', The Evening Standard Best of London, 1996 Dead Good Funerals Guide, Sue Gill & John Fox (Engineers of the Imagination, 1996). Natural Death Handbook (Rider, 1996, 1997, 2000). Exhibtion in which we appeared  HEAVEN & HELL AND OTHER WORLDS OF THE DEAD at the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. 15 July - 22 October 2000