The more things change...

[elisi]

From Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy Sayers. These snippets from the morning after the death of King George V (he died 20 January 1936):

From Chapter 4:

London had an odd feeling about it that morning. There was a stir of mournful excitement: people walked purposefully, yet abstractedly, as though something of secret importance waited them at the end of their journey. Harriet Wimsey, strolling slowly along Oxford Street, turned her novelist's mind to wondering what it was that made the crowd seem so unlike its ordinary daily self. Nearly everybody still wearing colours, yet the atmosphere was that of a funeral - of a village funeral. That was it. London had turned into a great village overnight, where every inhabitant knew the other's business and could read the other's mind. All these shoppers in Oxford Street, for instance; they were buying black, thinking about buying black, wondering how much black they could afford, or with how little black they could satisfy the instinct for decent self-expression. Behind the glittering barriers of plate-glass were shop assistants, window-dressers, buyers, managers, displaying black, checking the stock of black, issuing orders to the manufacturers for fresh supplies of black, anxiously calculating how far the demand for black would compensate for inevitable loss on coloured spring goods already ordered.

And a little later, this is Mr Delagardie speaking:

King George was a safe man and the country had grown used to him. The English do not care for change, and any new idea is repugnant to them.

~

I'm not in London, so I can't speak to it having become a village, but I'm sure it's not inaccurate.

Comments

[kazzy_cee]

I think there’s a lot of affection and sadness in the London area at the moment. There’s a lot of condolence booklets and little shrines with flowers and photos around here in the suburbs which surprised me.

[elisi]

I'm guessing people want to feel part of a special moment in history, even if they're not great royalists.

[yourlibrarian]

By coincidence I read this book in just this past year and it was the part of the book that most stood out to me. Part of it was just that no one of my generation or even one earlier had ever been through it. The other was the fascinating rituals around mourning, especially national mourning.

[elisi]

I think those passages were some of the first that came to me - they capture things so well, that I immediately recognised a lot of it (maybe not the worrying about buying black) but all the rituals etc.

[promethia_tenk]

I have read that one though don't recall that particular passage. Very evocative.

(What an odd notion, though, everybody collectively wearing black just because a head of state has died.)

[gillo]

Probably the last time people felt obliged to do that, though even on shopping channels presenters seem to be in black today! In 1910 everyone attending the Royal Ascot race meeting wore mourning.



Official Court mourning will be relatively short this time - after Victoria died I believe it was a year.

She's not just "Head of State", but the Queen who has been part of everybody's lives for all or most of their lives. Even back in the 30s the King had been on the throne for over a quarter-century and been there during the horrors of World War One. It was a much more deferential society back then. But even this time it's likely that competitors in sports fixtures will wear black armbands and a lot of people will line the streets wearing black or very sober colours on the day of the funeral.

[desdemonaspace]

My heart goes out to my British cousins.

The last time Americans were united in mourning a leader who passed was when John Kennedy was assassinated.

[elisi]

It's a weird thing. It's not sad as such (she was so very old and died very peacefully), but it's very strange.

[desdemonaspace]

I think I know what you mean. She was so old how could you not expect that she'd die soon, but she'd been Queen FOREVER. My whole life, and I'm an older person.

[elisi]

Yeah, it's a different world. :(

[elisi]

I feel very 'common' looking at that picture...

And yes, it was a different time. Even if some things haven't changed much at all, just the expression.

[gillo]

Not as common as me, sweetie! That was probably the Royal Enclosure on Ladies' Day - and tarted up by the artist too. It did give the inspiration for the fabulous costumes in My Fair Lady, mind you.

All the stinky brown stuff starts hitting the fan from Tuesday onwards, though. :'-(

[elisi]

Not as common as me, sweetie!
Eh, I'm a Viking, so I'm honestly not sure where that puts me. *g*

It did give the inspiration for the fabulous costumes in My Fair Lady, mind you.
...! I can see that. Interesting.

All the stinky brown stuff starts hitting the fan from Tuesday onwards, though. :'-(
Ugh, it's a sad day when a funeral is more uplifting than reality. :(

[elisi]

I have read that one though don't recall that particular passage. Very evocative.
It was pretty much the first thing I thought of. But then I know most of the books almost by heart, and I always found the descriptions of this particular event especially striking.

(What an odd notion, though, everybody collectively wearing black just because a head of state has died.)
Did people not wear black when Kennedy was killed?

[promethia_tenk]

It was pretty much the first thing I thought of. But then I know most of the books almost by heart, and I always found the descriptions of this particular event especially striking.
I bow to your superior Sawyers knowledge.

Did people not wear black when Kennedy was killed?
No idea; wasn't there. But I would certainly not assume so.

[elisi]

I bow to your superior Sawyers knowledge.
I'm not quite up to enevarim's standard, but I get by.

No idea; wasn't there.
LOL

[mecurtin]

I was only 7 for JFK's assassination, so I'd don't remember -- I'll ask my mom. I suspect that most Catholics wore black at church that Sunday (the funeral was the next day).

[elisi]

I suspect that most Catholics wore black at church that Sunday (the funeral was the next day).
Yeah, that sounds accurate.

[mecurtin]

Thank you for those quotes, I'd forgotten them!

The beginning of Angela's Thirkell's Jutland Cottage includes the death of George VI, and how people are scrambling to find something black to wear ... but I'm not sure how realistic it is. (and ye gads, how *bad* her prose is compared to Sayers'!)

Are people in shops & on the street around you wearing dark colours?

[elisi]

Thank you for those quotes, I'd forgotten them!
You're most welcome! I think most of Peter Wimsey just has permanent residence in my brain.

The beginning of Angela's Thirkell's Jutland Cottage includes the death of George VI, and how people are scrambling to find something black to wear ... but I'm not sure how realistic it is.
Certainly no one I have spoken with has worried about black!

and ye gads, how *bad* her prose is compared to Sayers'!
I had a look and yeah... it's all rather clunky. :(

Are people in shops & on the street around you wearing dark colours?
No, but shops etc have black signs and pictures of the queen with a black background. Every website in the entire country has a big black banner at the top.