title: Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer: An Anthology of Great Lives in 365 Days - The Telegraph (Telegraph Books)
author: Harry Quetteville
description: 'Rich, varied and endlessly entertaining.' Good Book Guide 'Life-affirming. Best given to someone who appreciates that.' Sidmouth &amp; Ottery Herald 'We're all equal when it's our turn to meet the grim reaper... An eclectic, day-by-day anthology of the Daily Telegraph's obituary columns, taking in the obscene but worthy, as well as the famous and notorious.' Choice 'I did what I always do in times of trouble - consult not the Good Book, but a good book. This was Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer, a collection of obituaries from the Daily Telegraph, the paper that first started printing warts and all descriptions of the dead.' -- Simon Hoggart Guardian 'Watching this cavalcade go by, at a very decent pace, is often instructive, sometimes inspiring and always enormous fun. Few people will read more than three pages without laughing out loud or pausing to share the joke with anyone within shouting distance.' Eastern Daily Press 'One of the best books published this year.' Bury Free Press
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  ![](images/Bell_9780307378637_epub_cvi_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ALSO BY MADISON SMARTT BELL
  
  
  _The Washington Square Ensemble_
  
  
  _Waiting for the End of the World_
  
  
  _Straight Cut_
  
  
  _Zero db_
  
  
  _The Year of Silence_
  
  
  _Soldier’s Joy_
  
  
  _Barking Man_
  
  
  _Doctor Sleep_
  
  
  _Save Me, Joe Louis_
  
  
  _All Souls’ Rising_
  
  
  _Ten Indians_
  
  
  _Narrative Design:  
  A Writer’s Guide to Structure_
  
  
  _Master of the Crossroads_
  
  
  _Anything Goes_
  
  
  _The Stone That the Builder Refused_
  
  
  _Lavoisier in the Year One:  
  The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution_
  
  
  _Toussaint Louverture: A Biography_
  
  
  _Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/Bell_9780307378637_epub_tp_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _In memory of Andrew Lytle,  
  with thanks to Dan Frank and Sonny Mehta,  
  for believing it was a good idea,  
  and thanks to Jack Kershaw,  
  for telling me a story_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Soldiers do not fight any better because of a good cause or a bad one_.
  
  
  —George Garrett, _Dou