Gordon Burn

It seemed the case of the notorious Yorkshire Ripper was finally closed when Peter Sutcliffe was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1981. But in the early 1980s Gordon Burn spent three years living in Sutcliffes home town of Bingley, researching his life. A modern classic, Somebodys Husband, Somebodys Son offers one of the most penetrating and provocative insights into the mind of a murderer ever written.A book which will, with some justice, be compared to In Cold Blood and The Executioners Song. Its as if Thomas Hardy were also present at the writing of this account of the Yorkshire Ripper. Norman Mailer

Following the 1985 final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis, Britain found itself in the grip of a new sporting obsession. Snooker, or Coronation Street with balls, was suddenly big business and 1986 was set to be a crucial year. In one corner was Barry Hearn and his Romford Mafia - Davis, Taylor and Griffiths - and in the other were the bad boys - Higgins, White and Knowles - threatening the games good name, and its earning potential. For one year, Gordon Burn travelled with this snooker circus, from Hong Kong and China to out of season resorts in the North of England and the seasons finale in Sheffield. With unprecedented access to the leading players and personalities involved, Pocket Money affords a unique snapshot into an extraordinary time and place.

Spring 2001, and the countryside of the North East of England resembles Fitzgeralds valley of ashes: the air is choked with the stench and smoke of the pyres which are burning in an attempt to contain the epidemic of foot and mouth disease.After forty years away, Ray Cruddas, a comedian with a national, considerably faded reputation, has returned to the North East to live. He has a new wife, a new club and a house close to a stand of trees which has haunted him from childhood.But he still believes he is living life at one remove, through the more vibrant, seemingly less complex and conflicted person of Jackie Mabe, the former boxer who, in his capacity as driver, drinking partner and gofer, has always stood between Ray Cruddas and the world. Jackie Mabe performed this role once before: for Jack Solomons, known as Jolly Jack and the potentate, who ruled British boxing in the decades before and after the War.Along with the Victorian painter Ralph Hedley, the Geordie comic Bobby Thompson, and Margaret Thatchers director of communications Gordon Reece, Solomons is among the many real life figures who populate this extraordinary blend of fact and fiction. The North of England Home Service, like Gordon Burns earlier novels, reanimates and reinvents popular culture, making unexpected connections and salvaging something palpable from the evanescent spectacle of contemporary life.

Summer 2007 was an extraordinarily rich time for news. Floods. Foot and mouth. The disappearances of Tony Blair and Madeleine McCann. The arrival of Gordon Brown. Terror attacks in Glasgow. And Gordon Burn, artist, journalist and true-crime author, has taken the events from this bleak summer and turned them into an utterly unique novel about the way news is made, and how the media creates and manipulates the stories we see before us. A daring and thrilling novel from one of the most astute observers of celebrity and tragedy, that is sure to make the headlines itself.

Norman Miller used to be one of Fleet Streets finest. Now hes a middle-aged, burned-out hack with a gift for the sensational story, the shouting tabloid lead. But as he reports on a series of brutal murders and sex crimes, hes forced to wonder whether he is just a witness - or part of some deeper pattern of cause and effect . . .Remarkable . . . Devastating . . . Required reading for anyone interested in what British fiction should be doing today. Stephen Amidon, Esquire

The Pop artists were among the first to understand the desire of consumers to change their lives through the purchase of clean, manufactured commodities. YBA, on the other hand, was more interested in the dirt that accrues beneath the laminate surface of shiny things. Their special perception was that cheap language and cheap materials didnt have to equal cheap thinking. The trick was to tell it in a jaunty, unportentous, off-hand, unliterary - anti-literary - way. And then there were the drugs.Spanning nearly 35 years, Sex & Violence, Death & Silence is a collection of the best of Gordon Burns writing on art. Focusing on two principle generations - the Royal College pop art of Hockney and his contemporaries, and the YBA sensations of the 1990s - it explores how these artists rose to prominence with their friends and contemporaries, and what happened next.Burns work is fast becoming a kind of chronicle. Its factuality always connects with the broader poetic rythms of cultural life. Displaying all his customary insight and empathy, his writing adds up to much more than a collection of pieces on art: superbly evocative and engaging, it offers a pathway through two of the most important and vibrant periods in recent art history, and is another compelling and ruminative look at our culture.

How does it feel to be never allowed to die? In his classic début novel, Gordon Burn takes Britains biggest selling vocalist of the 1950s and turns her story into an equation of celebrity and murder. Fictional characters jostle for space with real life stars - from John Lennon to Doris Day and Sammy Davis Jnr - as Burn, in a breathtaking act of appropriation, reinvents the popular culture of the post-war years. As beautifully written as it is disturbing, Alma Cogan remains a stingingly relevant exploration of the sad, dark underside of fame.An extraordinary, unprecedented novel. Audacious, innovative and totally compelling. William Boyd

The hero is the creature other people would like to be. Edwards was such a man, and he enabled people to respect themselves more.By the mid-fifties Manchester United had caught the imagination of the country. Duncan Edwards played his first game for the club at the age of fifteen years and eight months in 1953. Two years later he won his first England cap and Walter Winterbottom, then England manager, referred to him as the spirit of British football. On 15-a-week and living at Mrs Watsons boarding house at 5 Birch Avenue in Manchester, Edwards was the most prized of the Busby Babes. Then in February 1958 came Munich.Half a decade later George Best represented United reborn. Georgie of the boutiques and dolly birds### El Beatle of the European Cup in 68 and European Player of the Year; in the opinion of Pele, the most naturally talented footballer that ever lived. Retired at 27 and reduced to the role of Chelsea barfly and tabloid perennial; George, where did it all go wrong? An investigation into a club, two personalities and an England that has all but disappeared, Best & Edwards plots the course and trajectory of two careers unmoored in wildly different ways.

En 1994 la policía descubrió en el jardín de Fred y Rosemary West los restos enterrados de su hija y, al continuar las excavaciones, fueron apareciendo los esqueletos de otras ocho mujeres. Es lo que se bautizo como "la casa de los horrores". El autor ha escrito un libro arriesgado y obsesionante que nos obliga a indagar en el enigma del Mal, reconstruye las vidas de los West desde la infancia y los sigue en sus mudanzas y relaciones, en la progresiva cristalizacion de un universo de pesadilla lleno de rituales obscenos, mientras los pacificos vecinos que viven junto a ellos no ven ni oyen nada.

El 26 de febrero de 1994, tras una errática investigación, la policía descubre enterrados en el jardín de Fred y Rosemary West los restos de su hija Heather. El matrimonio ya había sido denunciado hacia unos cuantos años por una jovencita que habia trabajado como canguro en su casa, y que fue secuestrada, torturada y sometida a todo tipo de ultrajes, pero el procedimiento se habia resuelto con una multa a los West y poco mas. Pero ahora, en el atroz rompecabezas compuesto por los huesos de Heather, hay un tercer femur que no le pertenece. Las excavaciones continuaran, y en los dias siguientes, los restos de otras ocho mujeres son encontrados en el jardin y en el interior de la casa de los West, que los periodicos bautizaran como la casa de los horrores. Un libro arriesgado, obsesionante, que nos obliga a indagar en el enigma del Mal, un libro con una estructura que de alguna manera refleja esa casa laberintica, ese impenetrable castillo sadiano donde el padre iba agregando habitaciones, empalizadas, puertas infranqueables que no permitian ver desde el exterior ninguna actividad de sus moradores. Burn reconstruye las vidas de los West desde la infancia, los situa en el tejido social, los va siguiendo en sus mudanzas, en sus relaciones, en la progresiva cristalizacion de un universo de pesadilla lleno de rituales obscenos, en la constitucion de esa esperpentica familia que vivio durante años rodeada de vecinos en una pequeña ciudad de Inglaterra, sin que nadie viera nada, oyera nada, dijera nada.

Provocatorio, romantico, irriverente, trasgressivo, sempre profondo, Damien Hirst ripercorre tutta la sua carriera, dall'infanzia nei quartieri popolari di Leeds ai primi passi al Goldsmith College di Londra, dal mito di Francis Bacon all'incontro con Charles Saatchi e Larry Gagosian, passando attraverso la musica, l'arte, l'amore, la droga e la vita. Un resoconto completo e senza peli sulla lingua da uno degli artisti piu popolari e controversi del nostro tempo.

In this controversial and seminal work of reportage, Gordon Burn reveals the strange inner dynamic of Fred and Rosemary Wests relationship. Based on meticulous research, this dark history is told in a powerful, compelling narrative.One knew . . . that if a book of merit could be written about these crimes, Gordon Burn would be the man to do it.SpectatorBrilliant, bleak, unflinching.GuardianHappy Like Murderers is an account of two people who lived together, raised (and killed) children, provided sexual services for anyone interested, and pretended to provide social services for single women. Investigated and told by Gordon Burn, one of the greatest journalists and writers, this is the most powerful and upsetting true crime book you will ever read.With a new introduction by Benjamin Myers.