Jill Dando: Her Life and Death

by Brian Cathcart

The queen of television's prime time, she was trusted and loved by millions, while at thirty-seven she herself had finally found love. Then one bullet made her Britain's most famous murder victim.
It was a crime that took the breath cruel but unfathomable. Serb terrorist, criminal hit man, jilted lover or plain madman - the evidence pointed to all, and to none. And it raised disturbing questions. Was Dando the person she seemed? Had she in some way invited death? Is any celebrity safe?
In a study of fame and crime, Brian Cathcart charts Dando's rise from gawky schoolgirl to household name and seeks the sources of her huge popularity. Then he dissects the murder, the intensive investigations it prompted and the evidence that led, two years on, to a sensational Old Bailey trial. As he demonstrates, there has never been a case like it.

Genres: True Crime

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2001

About the author

Brian Cathcart is a journalist by background, having worked for Reuters, the London Independent papers and the New Statesman, and he is now professor of journalism at Kingston University London. Some of his books (including The Case of Stephen Lawrence, which won the Orwell Prize and a CWA Gold Dagger) have grown out of news and journalism; others (such as The Fly in the Cathedral) reflect his love of history. His latest, The News From Waterloo, combines the two. Cathcart is also a campaigner, having co-founded Hacked Off in 2011 to make the case for a free and accountable press. He is married with grown-up sons and lives in London, where he feeds the birds in the garden and from which he escapes occasionally to walk the Pennine Way.

Reviews

[Harry Tomos · Rating 4 out of 5]

having worked with jill and seen first hand the effects of her murder I was curious to. see what was said about her...and those shocking events.good book very balanced

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of an auto-biography as opposed to a true crime book. As a result a little on the boring side. The bulk of the book is Dando's biography which lacks the sensationalistic aspect that make true crime novels such a guilty pleasure. Not till the last quarter of the book do we get to a suspect with some salacious details. I'm sure Dando was a great woman, but unfortunately her life and death just weren't interesting enough to make a true crime book out of.