Obituaries
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Billy Drake: Second World War fighter pilot who became one of the RAF's most valued aces
Billy Drake was one of the most illustrious RAF and Allied "aces" of the Second World War.
Inside Obituaries
Michael Legat: Editorial director of Corgi Books and prolific author of writers' guides
Saturday, 3 September 2011
One of Michael Legat's favourite stories was about the interview he had in 1941 with Mr. Bentley, the Careers Master at Whitgift, his Croydon school, who suggested he try publishing.
Joe Lee Wilson: Celebrated jazz singer who had his roots in the blues
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Joe Lee Wilson, one of the outstanding vocalists of his generation, was a pioneer of the free jazz movement.
George Band: Member of the triumphant 1953 Everest expedition and conqueror of Kangchenjunga
Friday, 2 September 2011
With the death of George Band, the "family" of British mountaineers who forged close bonds in the 1950s, notably on the crowning 1953 Everest expedition, suddenly seems much depleted.
Per Denez: Writer and scholar who sought recognition for the Breton language and culture
Friday, 2 September 2011
When the Breton writer and scholar Per Denez was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wales in 1985, he was astonished to hear its chancellor, Prince Charles, say how sorry he was not to be able to address him in his own language. He had never received such courtesy in France and was more used to the insults which the French state habitually flings at those who work on behalf of the Breton language and its culture. The remark remained with him as a sign of the comparatively kinder treatment received by the Welsh, especially from their national university, where the language and literature of Wales have been taught for a hundred years or more.
Briefly: Esther Gordy Edwards
Friday, 2 September 2011
Esther Gordy Edwards, who died on 24 August at the age of 91, was known as "the Mother of Motown", writes Pierre Perrone, not only to her brother Berry Gordy Jr, the founder of the label that defined the Sixties as much as The Beatles, but also to artists like Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, whom she chaperoned on tour.
Gualtiero Jacopetti: Italian film-maker whose provocative Mondo documentaries broke new ground for realism in the cinema
Thursday, 1 September 2011
When the satirical US rock group The Tubes wanted to shock audiences in the mid-Seventies, they had their lead singer, Fee Waybill, wear a leather mask and thong, and little else, as he shone a torchlight into his face and sang their ode to S&M entitled "Mondo Bondage". They were following in the footsteps of the exploitation director Russ Meyer, who called his 1966 pseudo-documentary about strippers Mondo Topless, and the cult film-maker John Waters, who named his 1969 black comedy Mondo Trasho. However, mondo – the Italian noun for "world" – was first introduced into the English language by another director, Gualtiero Jacopetti, whose "shockumentaries" entitled Mondo Cane ("A Dog's Life", 1962), La Donna Nel Mondo ("Women of the World", 1963) and Mondo Pazzo ("Mad World", also known as Mondo Cane 2, 1963) proved unlikely box-office successes at a time when cinema and television shied away from graphic images.
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards: Delta bluesman who played with Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson
Thursday, 1 September 2011
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards was, almost certainly, the last surviving link with the 'Golden Age' of the Delta blues.
Dennis Rees: Publisher and pioneer of the Welsh record industry
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Dennis Rees played a major role in the recording of Welsh popular music and the publishing of Welsh books at a crucial point in their histories – the 1960s, when political pressure was being brought to bear on local and central government by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh language society) and Plaid Cymru. As the call for devolved governance gathered pace, there was a blossoming in the country's cultural life which urgently required new forms of expression. The vinyl record joined the book and periodical as a medium for young Welsh-speakers impatient with the bearded orthodoxies of their elders and they found a sympathetic ally in Dennis Rees.
Shirley Eskapa: Author whose book on extramarital affairs provoked wide debate
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Shirley Eskapa was a novelist whose fiction ranged from short stories and novellas to full-blooded sagas with international settings. The subject matter often mirrored the concerns of her non-fiction work Woman Versus Woman (1984), which examined the strategies adopted by women over a husband’s extramarital affair. She interviewed several hundred divorced husbands, wives and former mistresses, and concluded that men had a built-in propensity to stray whether the marriage was happy or not. She counselled wives not to blame themselves, but to wait for the “crisis of ecstasy” to burn itself out or to mount a subtle campaign aimed at diminishing the Other Woman.
Clair George: CIA officer who was convicted of lying to Congress over the Iran-Contra affair
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
In the mid-1980s, Clair George, who has died aged 81, was deputy director of operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, its third-highest position, in charge of covert espionage operations worldwide. George was in one sense an American George Smiley, a professional less concerned with his own advancement than with the success, and the reputation, of the agency he served. But Smiley never found himself brought before congressional committees to testify about his agency's involvement in, or knowledge of, illegal activities run out of the White House. To protect the CIA, George lied about the Iran-Contra operation, and was eventually convicted of two counts of perjury. Though a presidential pardon meant he avoided a jail sentence, by then he had been forced to resign from the agency he had tried to protect.
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Read
1 Billy Drake: Second World War fighter pilot who became one of the RAF's most valued aces
2 Per Denez: Writer and scholar who sought recognition for the Breton language and culture
3 John McAleese: Leader of the SAS team that ended the 1980 siege of the Iranian embassy in London
5 Michael Legat: Editorial director of Corgi Books and prolific author of writers' guides
6 Wendy Richard: Actress who played Pauline Fowler in 'EastEnders'
12 Alexis Arguello: Boxer who won world titles at three weights then turned to politics
13 Dr Paul Tessier: Plastic surgeon who revolutionised the treatment of facial deformity
14 George Band: Member of the triumphant 1953 Everest expedition and conqueror of Kangchenjunga
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