Death was an everyday part of life in 19th-century Britain – and the Victorians were fascinated by it, developing a wealth of customs and rules about how people should bury their dead and how they should grieve. Many of these – from hair jewellery to deathbed photography – seem strange to modern eyes, but they sprang from a deep desire to pay respect to the deceased. Speaking to Rebecca Franks, Judith Flanders takes us on a moving journey from the sickbed to the cemetery.
(Ad) Judith Flanders is the author of Rites of Passage: Death and Mourning in Victorian Britain (Picador, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rites-Passage-Mourning-Victorian-Britain/dp/1509816976/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On the trail of a Nazi war criminal
How did empire shape modern Britain?
Why did medieval Europe become Christian?
The Mongols: everything you wanted to know
The lost world of Dickens’ London
US Civil Rights: Malcolm X’s assassination
The miners’ strike: a view from the ground
California’s hidden history of slavery
Letters from medieval England
New Zealand: everything you wanted to know
Indian experiences in WW2
US Civil Rights: the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Learning disabilities: an overlooked history
Secrets of ancient Chinese tombs
How forgers helped rescue Holocaust victims
Ancient Egyptian religion: everything you wanted to know
Introducing HistoryExtra Long Reads
Did our ancestors really think the world was flat?
US Civil Rights: the March on Washington
Roger Mortimer: medieval rebel
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
The Ancients
Gone Medieval
Not Just the Tudors
History Unplugged Podcast