The Northern Hemisphere suffered three vicious winters, crackling under ice and snow in places and at times that had not felt ice and snow in known history. White peaks were to be seen all year in Scotland and Wales. The sea froze and coastal dwellers normally immune to the exigencies of a snow-covered landscape had to learn what their inland cousins had been contending with for years, while those same cousins sat still and muffled under an appalling white blanket. Animals and birds died, people died, buildings collapsed under unprecedented loads, and the world seemed to be holding its frosted breath.
The British found an old, long-dormant spirit of camaraderie in the face of this common adversity, and restocked their racial memory for subsequent nostalgia. Energy conservation preserved m
