Prelims

Half Title Page

Time of Death

Title Page

Time of Death: A Sociological Exploration

By

Glenys Caswell

Independent Social Researcher, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Glenys Caswell.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80455-006-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-005-2 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-007-6 (Epub)

Dedication

To Alan for your care, support and belief during the writing of this book.

List of Abbreviations

A&E

Accident & Emergency

AMRC

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

APT

Anatomical Pathology Technologist

BCE

Before the Common Era

BMA

British Medical Association

CCTV

Closed Circuit Television

CE

Common Era

ICD

International Classification of Diseases

ICRC

International Committee of the Red Cross

NHS

National Health Service (UK)

ONS

Office for National Statistics (UK)

RSPB

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

UK

United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

UN

United Nations

WHO

World Health Organization

About the Author

Glenys Caswell is an independent death studies scholar and University of Nottingham associate. She is a sociologist by training and her area of research interest focuses on the social management of dying and death. She has researched and published on aspects of dying alone, time of death and Scottish funerals. This is her second book, the first being called Dying Alone: Challenging Assumptions, which was published in 2022.

Preface

In 2017, I gave a paper at the 13th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Bereavement, which took place at the University of Central Lancashire, in Preston in the north of England. The paper focused on the ways in which dying alone was represented in the media, and one person attending suggested that time would make an interesting lens through which to look at experiences and representations of dying alone. This seemed so obvious that I wondered how I could not have thought of it myself. It also prompted me to think about death and dying more broadly in terms of time. It also led me to think about the time when my mother died and to realise that although I knew she died in May 1999, I could not remember the date nor the time of day. And I also realised that it didn't matter. I remembered, instead, the overall experience which was one of a gathering of family. I searched the academic literature for research and thinking about time in relation to death. I found swathes of work on time, including in the social sciences, but not so much about time in relation to death. As someone who enjoys detective stories for the narrative tendency to tie up all the loose ends and restore order to a chaotic world, I began to look into how true to life fictional pathologists are when they state confidently when someone died. By following up on the ideas, theories and stories about time that I found, I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole and, realising that I had no idea what time actually is, I felt compelled to do some explorations of my own. This is the first outcome of that work.

Acknowledgements

There are a number of people and organisations to whom I owe thanks, as I would not have been able to write this book without their different contributions. First, I would like to thank the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for funding the research on which the book relies in constructing its argument. I would also like to say thank you to Katy Mathers and the team at Emerald for their supportive approach while I was writing the book. Most important of all, I want to say a sincere thank you to Home Office registered forensic pathologist, Dr Stuart Hamilton, and to all the people who took part in my research. I appreciate your generosity in sharing your knowledge, time and experiences with me, and I can truly say that without you there would have been no book. So thank you.