ISSUE #24: Bee Gossip

Go tell the bees about my Substack.

In the first moments of the pilot episode of Midsomer Murders, a darkly funny classic British crime show set within the sleepy villages of the fictional county of Midsomer, elderly orchid enthusiast Emily Simpson is killed by an intruder in her home. When the police arrive to investigate, her friend and neighbor Lucy Bellringer tells them what she knows, and then mutters something to herself about going over to Emily’s house later to see to her bees.  

“You have to tell the bees when somebody dies,” she explains. “Otherwise, they just clear off.” 

In the show, this is presented as a bit of small-town quirk. Much of the charm of Midsomer Murders comes from the juxtaposition between its grisly crimes and its quaint settings, the suspects far from the conniving big city sinners we’ve grown so used to. But Lucy’s line speaks to an old tradition that traces its roots, some believe, as far back as Greek mythology, a belief in a certain wisdom that bees, in all their mystery, may possess.