THE BIG READ | How my mother and I decided to embrace death by making our own coffins

Knowing that death comes to us all, British journalist Laura Dodsworth and her mother, Catherine, decided to embrace it by making each other’s funeral caskets – and instead of being depressing and macabre, the project turned out to be unexpectedly life-affirming.

I am lying awake in bed, thinking about what it will be like to lie in my coffin. I am curious, excited and strangely peaceful at the prospect. I feel the echoes of willow scraping across my palms and fingers.

My mind replays the day’s hard-learnt cleaving and weaving techniques. I’m experiencing an unexpected version of mal de débarquement, that sensation when your body ebbs and flows at night with the memory of a lengthy sea voyage, long after disembarkation.