London’s Southbank Centre will host a festival about death this January.

Although there is a musical side to Death: Southbank’s Centre for the Living (to give it its full title), with performances from Petra Jean Phillipson, the BBC Concert Orchestra and Paul Gambaccini (spinning the nation’s favourite funeral music in Desert Island Death Discs), some of the festival’s most interesting moments come in the form of its talks and plays. Jon Snow will chair a panel discussion about assisted dying with guests including Baroness Kennedy QC, while Goodbye Mr. Muffin – a children’s play about the last days of a guinea pig – is sure to be a winner.

There’s also death rituals, Paul Morley talking rock star deaths, and explorations of the art of obituary writing. For more information and full  listings, visit the Southbank’s website.