Above, a city thriving with life. Beneath, a city filled with the
dead.
London. A vast, labyrinthine, ever-moving place that shimmers as the
jewel of Britain. But what about beneath it? What of it's history? It's
mishaps? It's dead?
Catharine Arnold invites us on a gloriously macabre tour - across
London's many graveyards, cemeteries and burial plots in a quest to
discover whether what has departed can teach us anything about what is
to come. It's an intriguing, occasionally dark, occasionally humorous
journey that reaches right back to the Romans and concludes with the
most recent display of mass public mourning: Princess Diana's funeral.
Utilising archaeology, anthropology, anecdote and history, Arnold
explores the presence of death in people's lives and the developments
and changes in mourning and burial through two millennia. London's
greatest disasters, including the Great Fire and the Black Plague, are
explored and analysed for their massive impacts on both the population
and the change in the disposal of the dead, while the unusual resting
places of several thousand Londoners are highlighted and studied, as a
means of examining growth and city development. Implicitly entwined with
the passing of generations is the transformation of an entire
population; where and how people live, where and how they die, and where
their children move on to. Arnold marvellously celebrates the
possibilities of living in a city as large as London and sensitively
demonstrates how much modern citizens owe to their ancestors.
Filled with beautiful details, such as the reason we wear black to
funerals (Romans believed the colour made mourners invisible to vengeful
spirits), and in an optimistic and respectful voice, Arnold brings us a
unique history of one of the world's greatest cities - built atop
centuries of history and still rising to this day. If you've ever
wondered where the sweet hereafter might be, then look no further -
Arnold shows us beautifully how even in a city as massive as London, the
dead never really leave us.
