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
Maria Theresa: life of the week
Agent Zo: spying against the Nazis
The Terror: everything you wanted to know
The real Lady Whistledown & the golden age of gossip
WW2's greatest battles | 5. Guadalcanal
A surprising history of sex between men
History Behind the Headlines: student protests down the centuries
Tudor ladies-in-waiting: the women who served Henry VIII's queens
Ancient Greek theatre: everything you wanted to know
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: is it ok to fictionalise the Holocaust?
WW2's greatest battles | 4. El Alamein
Shardlake: bringing the Tudor murder mystery to the screen
Kublai Khan: life of the week
Inside a Jim Crow asylum
The Spartans: Everything You Wanted to Know
Death by nostalgia: the curious history of a dangerous emotion
WW2's greatest battles | 3. Battle of the Atlantic
Smash hits: 17th-century style
Benjamin Franklin: life of the week
OJ Simpson: the trial that gripped the world
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Gone Medieval
History Unplugged Podcast
Not Just the Tudors
History Daily