Unless you’re getting on a bit, you probably haven’t given much thought to what sort of coffin you’d like to be buried in when the time comes. There’s a funeral director in Golders Green that displays one in his window with a picture of a Spitfire wrapped all the way round it and with a load of poppy petals fluttering around it, and I remember thinking at the time that it just looked a bit naff. Fair enough, I get that some people – or their relatives, at least – might want a nice coffin made from decent quality wood with some nice velvet lining when they shuffle off their mortal coil. But, not being religious, even that seems to me to be a bit of a waste considering it’s either going to be burnt pretty much instantly or eaten by worms. Sorry if that offends, but that’s the truth. In fact, my father has already told us that he’s quite happy for us to dump him in a dustbin and spend the money on a nice weekend away somewhere instead. But when I was at the Royal Festival Hall over the weekend, I came across the exhibition ‘Death: Southbank Centre’s Festival for the Living’, displaying a truly astonishing array of designer coffins. Some of them made me laugh out loud. Had I missed the point?
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