In 2011, St John the Baptist's Church in Buxton turned to the local community to help look after the graves in the churchyard, after being told that funding rules meant that they couldn't pay for their upkeep.

Local people were invited to 'Adopt a Grave' to look after, and the response was good.

Church warden, Jean Luton said: “We had an open day and had to approach people with this odd idea of tending the grave of a stranger. Eighteen people said yes on the day and more have joined since. We let them walk through the churchyard and choose a grave which appealed to them. I don't know how they chose, but nobody wanted the same grave, it was incredible.”

It doesn't surprise me that nobody chose the same grave.

Volunteer Bridget Maddison said: "I thought it was just my crazy idea but when I mentioned it, the whole family wanted to come along. As we walked along, a shaft of sunlight came through the trees and on to a grave, so we all said 'That's the one'.”

I'd like to believe that that's as magical as it sounds, and that the dead people have played a big part in choosing who will 'adopt' their memorials and look after them. I know it sounds barmy, but I know from attending spiritualist church that there are lots of people who believe that the dead communicate with us in all sorts of ways, such as that shaft of sunlight. These beliefs are comforting for many, and caring for the grave of somebody who existed in times past is both rewarding and thought provoking. It gives a sense of connection to the history of the area, and above all, a sense of satisfaction in knowing that a 'lost person' matters again.

I'd recommend anyone to adopt a grave, especially an old one. You don't have to do much. Just keep it tidy, and maybe bring along some flowers now and then to give a bit of colour. You'll make a connection, I promise. You'll find yourself picturing how areas of your town looked and felt when that person walked there. You'll take an interest in the differences between then and now, and it will open your mind to a lot of things. It's definitely a worthwhile thing to do.

I recently 'adopted' the grave of a lady called Esther, in a cemetery that I have walked through for many years but never noticed her little headstone until recently. What drew my attention was a beautiful big red and black moth that flew past me and came to rest on her memorial. It was exactly the type of thing that people from the spiritualist church would say was a sign. I can't recall ever seeing a moth like that anywhere else in my life, and if that wasn't an actual magic moment, then it certainly felt like one.

Graveyard.

The fuss about gay marriage is utterly ridiculous, and the reasons for people's objections are nothing short of risible. It undermines nobody's marriage if people with different lifestyles and beliefs want to make that same commitment to each other. How can it? Welcome to the 21rst Century. Your personal beliefs and traditions are no longer a barrier to the lives and happiness of people who aren't the same as you. Sorry if you don't like that, but other people's lives are not your life. The good news is that you can continue to live exactly how you like, according to whatever beliefs make you happy.

It's only a few decades ago that same-sex couples were an outrageous concept. Society has come a long way in a short space of time. I'm very pleased for these people, but I've got to admit that I'm also jealous.

My sexuality is a real dead end. Excuse the pun.

I'm not an exclusive necrophiliac, but I've never been able to find a 'regular' relationship that actually works for long. At the age of 37, I've been in 'regular' relationships for most of my adult life. There's no obvious reason why most of these relationships have failed. I'm not inexperienced or naive. I'm not selfish, antisocial, bad tempered, or violent. The chemistry just isn't there, and there's no point in pretending that it's just been bad luck time after time.

Marriage is something I'd really like one day. That's a recent attitude for me. I've never felt secure enough with anybody to seriously consider it, but the current debate about gay marriage has got me thinking about what it means to love somebody enough to pledge the rest of your life to them. I can't see it happening for me in a 'regular' relationship, no matter how confident I feel within it. I've had the rug pulled from under me too many times when I've seen no problems on the horizon, so I've been thinking about unconventional alternative marriages that could apply to a sad old necrophile... without getting his collar felt by the law!

The actor Peter Cushing, remained touchingly devoted to his wife, Helen, from her death in 1971 to his own in 1994. He spent a lot of time at her graveside, and never looked at anyone else. When questioned about his romantic life, he replied that to be reunited with Helen was his only ambition. Although they were together before her death, I've always admired Peter's devotion to her.

Jonathan Cainer, the astrologer, has spoken openly about living alongside the spirit of his deceased wife, Melanie. I remember being very impressed with an interview he gave, in which he described them 'living' together as normally as possible, bringing up their kids etc. Sadly, he went and got the nanny pregnant, but his story inspired me at the time, and still does today in many ways.

Somewhere between Peter and Jonathan's situations, I think there's a highly unusual, but workable potential for a necrophile marriage of sorts. Excluding shagging the nanny of course!

I have some basic medium skills from attending spiritualist workshops with a former girlfriend, and I have several graves that I visit regularly and look after. If I could develop some proper mediumship ability, and if somebody in one of those graves agrees, then I think it's definitely possible to have a non-physical, spiritual, necrophile marriage...

Okay, I think I should point out that I'm not being 100% serious here!

I do like the idea though.

I hope I get the chance to pledge my life to someone I love (preferably somebody with a heartbeat who can share experiences with me) before I get too much older, but if that's the way I decide to do it, who has the right to say to me: “I don't approve of that. It undermines my idea of marriage, so you shouldn't be allowed to do it.”?

Nobody. That's who.

Best wishes to anybody who wants to marry the one they love, whoever you are!

Graveyard.

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to St Tiggywinkles, a wildlife hospital that you might have seen on TV at some point.

I've taken quite a few injured animals into their 'casualty department' down the years. One of them, a moorhen, is now living on their enclosed pond, as it was not deemed fit to be released back into the wild as a result of its injuries.

We saw some baby birds that had been brought in as eggs, after their nest was destroyed. They had been hatched in an incubator, and they get fed by somebody with a bird glove-puppet, so as not to get them to trust human beings before they're released into the wild.

We saw a red kite that had had its beak destroyed somehow. We saw a fox that had been brought in after being run over by a car. We saw a badger that had also been run over, but was never released back into the wild because it had become too friendly towards humans. Basically, we saw a bunch of wonderful animals that would not be alive today if St Tiggywinkles didn't exist.

I remember them in their early days, when they operated from a shed in a garden in Aylesbury. They were primarily a hedgehog hospital when they started, but soon found themselves caring for other animals that had been injured on the roads. They moved to where they are now in 1991, financed entirely by donations from animal loving people, and now they treat over ten thousand wild animals every year.

That's right. Over ten thousand. Isn't it fantastic that somebody is doing this?

These people are real heroes. The work they do is brilliant, and makes such a difference to thousands of little lives that many people never give a second thought to. If you ask me, the founders of this wonderful organisation deserve knighthoods at the very least, in recognition of what they've achieved and what they'll continue to do.

Graveyard.

I'm not religious. I believe there's a God (and very possibly a Goddess!), but I'm very iffy about the reliability of scriptures that purport to convey his will. My experience of regular church, was that most people shape God into their own personal authority figure, complete with all their individual prejudices and quirks. Name any demographic of people, and you won't have to look far to find religious people who justify hating that demographic of people on the grounds that God hates them too.

Apparently he hates rich people, poor people, gay people, entire races of people, unbelievers, believers who believe in the 'wrong' interpretation... the list goes on and on.

I don't believe he hates anyone. I doubt very much if he's even interested in the pathetic details of our lives that human beings hate one another for. I think it's safe to say that the omnipotent creator of everything is probably going to be a bit more broadminded and understanding than that!

There are countries in this world that execute people in the name of God for being homosexual. Lord knows what they would do to me, as somebody with necrophilia. They'd probably have me drawn, quartered and burned alive, all the while believing that their personal interpretation of God is pleased with them for doing it.

Ironically, it's my paraphilia that has taken me back to a form of church – spiritualist church, where people go to receive messages from the dead via mediums. I'm not frightened of God, or any spirit that sees who I am and what I'm all about. What frightens me is the living. Their ignorance, their prejudices, and their potential actions.

Graveyard.

Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA's Prism program are truly horrifying, but shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Privacy is well and truly a thing of the past, and you don't have to be a terrorist or a paedophile to feel threatened by the fact that there are people who can read every email or private message you've ever sent or received.

Whoever dubbed the internet as 'the worldwide web' wasn't joking. Most of us have blindly walked into it and allowed our lives to be entangled in it. Almost everybody has a Facebook page these days, and no matter how much privacy you think you have, that page reveals a lot about you. Who your friends are, your likes, your interests. You've also more than likely sent private messages to people that you wouldn't like anyone else to read. All this can snooped on by people who know what they're doing.

Why would anyone snoop on you? There's a million reasons. Market research for one. Facebook is a giant open goldmine for anyone with the know-how to get around its flimsy 'privacy' settings. If someone told you ten years ago that you'd willingly put your life up on a website, you'd probably have said they were mad. Today it's as regular a part of life as brushing your teeth in the morning.

More and more of our lives are becoming integrated with the internet. Skype is fast replacing the telephone. Soon nobody will bother having a phone contract. Everybody will use some online IM application with a cam and mic from whatever handheld device is in fashion. Television as we know it will be the next thing to go.

The web is changing peoples' social behaviour. More and more people spend more time communicating with people online than actually going out and socialising. My daughter never stops tapping away at her iPad, talking to her mates, who all seem to see the world through a tiny screen. Her mum argues that it's better than all of them hanging around in the streets or the park and getting in trouble. I can see her point, but really they're missing out. The internet gives them the impression of having the world at their fingertips, but in reality they're growing up more entwined in the worldwide web than any of us could have predicted a decade ago.

It's becoming normal to live our lives through the internet. It's swallowing up almost everything, to the point where it's almost impossible to avoid, and somebody somewhere can see everything you do online. It might be a market research whizzkid. It might be someone in the CIA. It might be a Q type character from MI5. It might just as easily be the proverbial weirdo in his mother's basement.

There's no doubt the internet is a brilliant thing, but how many of us stop to think about how entwined our lives are in the worldwide web, and how potentially vulnerable that can make us?

Graveyard.