More people are opting to go out with a bang, with companies that organise memorial firework displays reporting a boom in business.
Britons are moving away from traditional funerals, according to a survey by Perfect Choice Funerals, with preferences including their remains being sent into space, turned into jewellery or tattoo ink, or pressed into vinyl as their favourite record.
Fergus Jamieson, founder of Heavens Above Fireworks, said: “The sad-and-black type of event is not right for everyone. Fireworks is a very emotional way to say goodbye. You get the elation of the noise and colour but you get tears as well.”
The ashes of the journalist Hunter S Thompson were fired from a cannon at his funeral in 2005, paid for by the actor Johnny Depp.