Book of Obituaries

Book of Obituaries by Colqhoun, Keith. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781846681073.

The obituaries that appear in The Economist are remarkable because of the unpredictable selection of people to be written about, the surprising lives they led - and also for the style in which the obituary is written. Ann Wroe, the current obituaries editor, says she likes to "get the essence" right away. Discovering Arthur Miller had been a carpenter made her realise how beautifully crafted his plays were, and after Hunter Thompson committed suicide his obituary began "There were always way too many guns around at Hunter S. Thompsons farm." The Economists obituary column was introduced in 1995 and the selection of over 200 obituaries for this book ranges far and wide to include Jean Bedel Bokassa and Pope John Paul II, Jean Baudrillard and Syd Barrett, Pamela Harriman and Harry Oppenheimer, Estee Lauder and Ingmar Bergman, Bip (the mime artist, Marcel Marceau) and Alex the African Grey (sciences best-known parrot).