It's accompanied by this striking photo of Alexander making up his brother Garry.
I know what you're thinking - did he ever marry?
We learn that "Grant’s activities were just as colourful offstage as on."
But are not given much colour.
The obituary's last line reads; "Alexander Grant is survived by his companion of more than 50 years, Jean-Pierre Gasquet, and by his brother Garry."
As the first reader's comment reads;
"Companion? Is that some sort of archaic euphamism for boyfriend/partner? Did some kind of Methodist or Catholic matriarch write this obituary in 1970 and the Telegraph not bother to update it properly?"
Quite.
• Although the euphemism "He never married" is so archaic it's now become a joke, the Telegraph last signed off an obituary with it in April of this year.
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Don't they use the "he never married" line to "protect" the subject, though?
ReplyDeleteie. the person never came out so presumably didn't want anyone to know, so it's just respect for the subject in a piece (obit) where presumably respect is quite important?
I don't see the problem with it.
Likewise, "companion" - in fact, I find companion to be a better description by far than the awful, business-like "partner".
It's one of those areas where it's not clear what the correct word is - boyfriend seems a bit adolescent or short-term, to me. Though I would say "boyfriend" is probably the one I would use, in the end; it still sounds a bit odd for someone who's been with him for more than 50 years.
To me, that makes him more than a "boyfriend" but what exactly, I don't know.
I guess I would use boyfriend.
If you had to write the obit, what would you say, Fagburn?
Boyfriend? Partner? Companion?
Bumchum.
ReplyDeleteOr just say "He is survived by Tom Daley."
So you don't actually know what you'd use??
ReplyDeleteJust as I suspected!!!!!!! :(
I told you!
ReplyDeleteFFS!!!
The Telegraph had a full set of "nudge-nudge" obituary phrases: "he never married" "a confirmed bachelor" "his lifelong companion was at his bedside" etc - some were even more suggestive "after he retired, he devoted himself to youth work." Indeed as pointed out above words such as "colourful social life" "life and soul of select dinner parties" and so on are/were also used. The Telegraph also suggested (and still does) that if you are in the ballet you must be "raving." Even "better" to show a picture of the subject dressing up like a girly with make up and all. That's what "quairs" do...
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot - The Telegraph:
ReplyDeleteThis is a classic:
"Count Gottfried von Bismarck, who died on July 2, 2007, aged 44, was a louche German aristocrat with a multi-faceted history as a pleasure-seeking heroin addict, hell-raising alcoholic, flamboyant waster and a reckless and extravagant host of homosexual orgies."
After much more of this the obituary ends with
"He never married."
I'm interested in the fact that 'Methodist' and 'Catholic' (presumably meaning 'RC')are run together.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time Papists were regarded by 'all true Englishmen [women didn't matter] as super-subtle and almost certainly sexually... ambiguous... Now RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRoman CARTHOLICS are crude homophobes... interesting....