Book description
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
Sutcliffe's home town of Bingley, researching his life. A modern
classic, Somebody's Husband, Somebody's 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 Executioner's Song. It's as if Thomas Hardy were also
present at the writing of this account of the Yorkshire Ripper.'
Norman Mailer
Gordon Burn was the author of four novels, Alma Cogan (winner of
the Whitbread First Novel Prize), Fullalove, The North of England Home
Service and Born Yesterday. He was also the author of the non-fiction
titles Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, Pocket Money, Happy Like
Murderers, On The Way to Work (with Damien Hirst) and Best and
Edwards. His last book, Sex & Violence, Death and Silence, was a
collection of his essays on art.
