Letter: We want heroes and so we want biography

Letter: We want heroes and so we want biography

It Was sad to see such an admirable biographer as Ben Pimlott so apologetic about hisprofession. He says that any biography lacks a recognisable conclusion. Well, it can certainly conclude by judging whether its subject has lived a good or a relatively bad life, and that, as conclusions go, hardly deserves to be sniffed at. One might, indeed, go further and suggest that if Tony Blair and his inner circle sought out the collective wisdom of biographers - who take rather seriously such issues as individual probity - rather than that of detached and abstract social theorists - who have their minds on other, grander, things - they, and I, might actually profit from the consequent increase in sensitivity.

Graham McCann

King's College, Cambridge