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Gordon Burn (16 January 1948 – 17 July 2009) was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction.
His non-fiction works deal primarily with sport and true crime. Burn's first book, Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, was a study of Peter Sutcliffe, 'the Yorkshire Ripper", and his 1998 book, Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred West and Rosemary West, dealt in similar detail with two of Britain's most notorious serial killers.
Burn's interest in such infamous villains extended to his fiction, with Myra Hindley, one of the 'Moors murders', featuring prominently in the novel Alma Cogan. His sport-based books consisted of Pocket Money: Inside the World of Snooker (1986) and Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion (2006), the latter of which examines the twin stories of Manchester United footballers Duncan Edwards and George Best, and the "trajectory of two careers unmoored in wildly different ways."
He also wrote a book in conjunction with British artist Damien Hirst, On the Way to Work, a collection of interviews from various dates between 1992 and 2001. A regular contributor to The Guardian, his columns often focused on contemporary art.
Gordon Burn died in the summer of 2009, whilst the book was being prepared for publication.
The artists discussed in the book are as follows:
British art dealer Nigel Greenwood is also featured.
Nicholas Lezard described the work as being "knowledgeable, thorough and readable".
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