When did we all get so squeamish about death? Whenever it was, it isn’t healthy, writes Kevin Toolis in Nine Rules to Conquer Death, (Oneworld, £12.99; Tablet price £11.69). Toolis fears we have turned life’s natural ending into something tragic, shameful and private. “We shun the sick, minimise death and recoil from the bereaved,” he laments. He would have us learn from the old Irish wake, which turned death into a communal, celebratory feast, drawing joy from pain. In “seeing the dead in the company of your community”, he writes, you will be “integrating a little bit of death into your life and feeling more relaxed about dying”.