A manufacturer of eco-friendly coffins once contacted me seeking publicity. He failed. I could not imagine grieving relatives interring Auntie Pauline in a cardboard box, like a defunct guinea pig. No business is as conservative as undertaking, I believed. The fear of disrespecting the dead slows change to a glacial pace.

I was wrong. Demand for funerals incorporating green products and practices is growing healthily, at the specification of Auntie Pauline herself. Non-religious send-offs are flourishing in parallel. Conditions are right for a quiet revolution in the British way of death. This will kick in seriously when baby boomers start checking out wholesale. Flexible funeral directors will reap the benefits.