Obituarising Myra
From Mr J. Fergusson
Sir: My old friend Stephen Glover (Media studies, 23 November) complains of the 'measured obituaries' of Myra Hindley in the Independent and the Guardian, What should obituaries ever be but measured? Or is he implying, in his old-fashioned way, that Hindley should not have had an obituary at all?
Selection for the newspaper obituary columns is, as Mr Glover well knows, a morally neutral matter. Adolf Hitler
would have had an obituary in the Independent, as did President Ceausescu. Myra Hindley is a subject the more compelling because she is complicated: an iconic figure, certainly (an 'icon of homicidal infamy', we called her); a traditional villainess whose cause was yet taken up by the great and good (Lord Longford, David Astor); a 'reformed character' whose mere image in a Royal Academy exhibition caused a public scandal.
Did Mr Glover read to the end of Professor Terence Morris's cool but eloquent obituary in the Independent? On the evidence, I suspect not.
James Fergusson
Obituaries Editor, The Independent, London E14
Previous page
