Everybody wants a christening, wedding or funeral service to be unique to them and one of the main ways of personalising a ceremony is to choose one's own readings.

Not everyone reads poetry or novels together and many do not know where to start in choosing a special piece. Here, an experienced editor of such books has collected together 100 readings from across the centuries and from a variety of cultures in celebration of a birth, a marriage, a life that has ended. There is humour, tenderness, challenge, wisdom and realism in abundance, offering , quite literally, something for everyone. The first volume focuses on love and marriage.