When my mother died in 2017, having been her carer, I wasn’t able to hand her over to faceless bureaucracy. Instead, I found a local funeral director who told me there are in fact only two rules about disposing of a dead relative.

You must not cause an affront to public decency – such as parading them around in a state – and if you plan to bury them in your garden (which is legal) you need permission from your local council. They would then need to be buried at sufficient depth so you…