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Obituaries

Obituaries may not be the obvious choice for a humour page, but let me explain. Taking a course in English some years ago, I decided to find some English newspaper to read in order to get a feeling for modern news language. By sheer luck, I found a copy of "The Weekly Telegraph", the expatriate weekly edition of The Telegraph. It was here I found myself reading the obituaries page, enjoying them immensely. The obituaries were written with respect, but still showing not solely the good side of people - their weaknesses and eccentricities were also well covered. I later found a number of collection of the best obituaries from The Daily Telegraph, and have enjoyed them.

• The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries – A celebration of eccentric lives, was the first collection with the funniest and most colourful obituaries.
• The Daily Telegraph Second Book of Obituaries – Heroes and Adventurers, focused on the more heroic and adventurous characters.
• The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries – Entertainers.
• The Daily Telegraph Fourth Book of Obituaries – Rogues, focused on the lives of more dubious and unheroic characters.
• The Daily Telegraph Fifth Book of Obituaries – 20th Century Lives.
• The Very Best of the Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries gives the highlights of the previous five volumes.
• The Daily Telegraph Book of Airmen's Obituaries concentrates on the known and unknown heroes of the Air Force.
• The Daily Telegraph Book of Military Obituaries contains 100 obituaries of military men, mostly heroes of the Second World War.