Happy Like Murderers

Description

On 26 February 1994 the remains of Heather West were discovered in the garden of the house at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester where she had lived with her seven brothers and sisters, her mother Rosemary and her father Fred. Over the next days the remains of eight other women were found buried and 25 Cromwell Street became known as the 'House of Horror'. Fred West hanged himself in prison before the charges against him of child-rape, sexual abuse, torture and murder could be heard. On conviction, his wife became known as the most depraved woman on Earth. In Happy Like Murderers Gordon Burn reveals for the first time the strange inner dynamic of the Wests' relationship throughout their long life together. Was Rosemary West a vicious, sadistic and insatiable bisexual, her husband's full partner in the lust murders of women and young girls? Or was she a physically and psychologically tormented obedience slave, shaped by him and her own submissive dependence into something compliant and corrupt? Investigated and told by one of the greatest journalists and writers of the last twenty years, this is the most powerful and upsetting true crime book you will ever read.

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.