"Sometimes hilarious, often poignant, always fascinating this collection of obituaries brilliantly reveals a multitude of curious characteristics of the famous and rich. "
Dipping into the lives of those included in this collection of obituaries which includes familiar kinds of eccentric aristocrats, church men and politicians as well as those who are less well-known, is a bit like going to a hugely enjoyable party and finding all the other guests are almost entirely transparent.
Each obituary looks at the idiosyncrasies and foibles of a person in an entertaining way. Much of the pleasure of these obituaries lies in the tone they are written in. Frequently, the account is non judgemental, rather it is just a kind of innocent delight in ‘characters’ and the curious ways in which people choose to spend their time.
For example, Roy Dommett, Britain’s Chief Missile Scientist during the Cold War, devoted his spare time to Morris dancing. The joke lies in the juxtaposition of these two - we are not invited to laugh at the subject. But there are times when the humour seems more barbed. Raine, Countess Spencer craved attention and her excesses were so egregious that she was always in the public eye. As a result, her obituary contains no surprises but it is still fun to read.
But telling these life stories also reveals the just how complicated ife can be. Some end sadly, like Anne Naysmith, a once famous concert pianist whose final years were spent living in a car; some are just curious like Maurice Flitcroft, a fantasist who tried to be a competitive golf player even though he had no talent. Read overall, these obituaries reveal the extraordinary way that individuals behave as told in highly talented journalism used to excellent effect.
In the late 1980s the Daily Telegraph transformed the traditionally dry and stolid world of obituaries, ushering in a new way of writing about the dead that was vivid, gently subversive and richly comic. Telegraph obituaries became a byword for entertaining journalism, celebrated for their deadpan tone and sympathetic eye for human quirks and eccentricities. Here is a gallery of the most entertaining of these eccentric lives from the recent past, most of them never before published in book form.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Other Genres: |
In the late 1980s the Daily Telegraph transformed the traditionally dry and stolid world of obituaries, ushering in a new way of writing about the dead that was vivid, gently subversive and richly comic. Telegraph obituaries became a byword for entertaining journalism, celebrated for their deadpan tone and sympathetic eye for human quirks and eccentricities.
Eccentric Lives features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Anthologies: general, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, Biography: general, True stories: general
Hardback. Not Available.
Eccentric Lives was written by Andrew M. Brown and published by Unicorn Publishing Group
Eccentric Lives has 256 pages
