Why go to ground in a plain box when you can have the likes of Jonathan Ross accompany you to the other side in a casket personalised to your specifications
Most of us will not end our days in Westminster Abbey, buried amid pomp and circumstance alongside Churchill, Chaucer and a majority of the Plantagenet kings. But if you're looking for a way to go out in (unusual) style, then Karen Lloyd, who recently died at the age of 51, may provide inspiration. Known to her friends as "Costa Karen", this devotee of the chain of high street cafes chose to be buried in a burgundy coffin with "Costa" branded on the side, complete with the text "one shot, extra hot skinny latte".
Karen is not alone in wanting to be laid to rest in something so odd and personality-specific. I have long dreamt of a Viking funeral, in which I am put on a boat and sent out to sea, engulfed in flames, but if I wanted to be more traditional and be stuck in the ground in a coffin, there are a number of companies willing to indulge me. I could even get buried in a Viking longboat. Creative Coffins, based in Kent and making out-of-the-ordinary coffins since 2008, will help you celebrate your love of the comic ingenuity of Jonathan Ross, while paying homage to his interviewing skills, by being buried in your very own Friday Night with Jonathan Ross casket.
The company's most popular coffins are not related to primetime entertainment shows. Customers tend to opt for either a coffin decorated with sunflowers or, for the keen musician and rock fan, a coffin in the shape of an electric guitar. If only Hendrix had known that was an option. One of Creative Coffins' customers was buried in the ever-popular "Rest in Peas" coffin, which is decorated with green peas, fresh from the garden. He personalised it with the slogan "Vote Lib Dem". "This was before the coalition," a spokesperson for Creative Coffins told me.
Costa isn't the only brand being paid tribute to in death. The Brooklyn Museum has a coffin in the shape of a Nike shoe on display, made in Ghana, where they share the passion for quirky caskets. Apple groupies can be buried in a coffin that looks like an iMac, an iPhone screen or an iPad. If you can't be doing with that new-fangled nonsense, you can pay homage to the Mario Brothers by getting buried in a Super Nintendo controller, or take it back to the halcyon days of early mobile phone technology by spending eternity in a Nokia handset.
Crazy Coffins, another British purveyor of personalised coffins, says that canal boats are often in high demand. If watching Gladiator has taught us anything, it's that in death you are free. And what signifies freedom better than the open seas or, in this case, the carefully designed canals? If you'd rather hammer home the metaphor though, you can just get buried in a coffin that looks like a giant fish or a great white shark. In death, as in life, the world is your oyster. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
Most of us will not end our days in Westminster Abbey, buried amid pomp and circumstance alongside Churchill, Chaucer and a majority of the Plantagenet kings. But if you're looking for a way to go out in (unusual) style, then Karen Lloyd, who recently died at the age of 51, may provide inspiration. Known to her friends as "Costa Karen", this devotee of the chain of high street cafes chose to be buried in a burgundy coffin with "Costa" branded on the side, complete with the text "one shot, extra hot skinny latte".
Karen is not alone in wanting to be laid to rest in something so odd and personality-specific. I have long dreamt of a Viking funeral, in which I am put on a boat and sent out to sea, engulfed in flames, but if I wanted to be more traditional and be stuck in the ground in a coffin, there are a number of companies willing to indulge me. I could even get buried in a Viking longboat. Creative Coffins, based in Kent and making out-of-the-ordinary coffins since 2008, will help you celebrate your love of the comic ingenuity of Jonathan Ross, while paying homage to his interviewing skills, by being buried in your very own Friday Night with Jonathan Ross casket.
The company's most popular coffins are not related to primetime entertainment shows. Customers tend to opt for either a coffin decorated with sunflowers or, for the keen musician and rock fan, a coffin in the shape of an electric guitar. If only Hendrix had known that was an option. One of Creative Coffins' customers was buried in the ever-popular "Rest in Peas" coffin, which is decorated with green peas, fresh from the garden. He personalised it with the slogan "Vote Lib Dem". "This was before the coalition," a spokesperson for Creative Coffins told me.
Costa isn't the only brand being paid tribute to in death. The Brooklyn Museum has a coffin in the shape of a Nike shoe on display, made in Ghana, where they share the passion for quirky caskets. Apple groupies can be buried in a coffin that looks like an iMac, an iPhone screen or an iPad. If you can't be doing with that new-fangled nonsense, you can pay homage to the Mario Brothers by getting buried in a Super Nintendo controller, or take it back to the halcyon days of early mobile phone technology by spending eternity in a Nokia handset.
Crazy Coffins, another British purveyor of personalised coffins, says that canal boats are often in high demand. If watching Gladiator has taught us anything, it's that in death you are free. And what signifies freedom better than the open seas or, in this case, the carefully designed canals? If you'd rather hammer home the metaphor though, you can just get buried in a coffin that looks like a giant fish or a great white shark. In death, as in life, the world is your oyster. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.