Two years after the Armistice of 1918, an unidentified soldier was given a state funeral and buried in Westminister Abbey. He represented the loved ones of all those who had been denied the comfort of the basic rituals of mourning. The Great Silence is the story of the period leading up to this moment: two years of celebration, anger, denial and hope. Juliet Nicolson evokes Two years after the Armistice of 1918, an unidentified soldier was given a state funeral and buried in Westminister Abbey. He represented the loved ones of all those who had been denied the comfort of the basic rituals of mourning. The Great Silence is the story of the period leading up to this moment: two years of celebration, anger, denial and hope. Juliet Nicolson evokes what England was like for those who had danced through settled Edwardian times and whose lives were now so altered. Against a background of social upheaval, even shorter skirts, the movies and the sound of jazz, a spirit of resilience and survival began to triumph.