When he submitted his dissertation on Morbid Grief Reactions: A Review of the Literature to the University of London in 1959, Parkes made his first major contribution to the study of grief and bereavement. There followed a series of publications (e.g. Parkes, 1965, 1971) which culminated in the first edition of the book reconsidered here. On my first reading of this book, I was reminded of Samuel Johnson's comment that “the two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new”. Parkes' descriptions of unusual reactions to loss are presented in a fashion which makes them feel reassuringly familiar, and those reactions which are more commonplace are described in a way which requires us to consider them anew.