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Tragedy as 58-year-old man dies while staying at budget hotel in city centre

Tragedy as 58-year-old man dies while staying at budget hotel in city centre

The Sun3 days ago
THE body of a man has been found at a budget hotel in Birmingham.
The grim find was made at Rollason Wood Hotel in Wood End Road, Erdington, last Wednesday (July 16).
The 58-year-old - understood to be a guest at the property - was pronounced dead at the scene after being found at 10.55am.
The death was not being treated as suspicious and the Birmingham and Solihull Coroner was notified.
West Midlands Police said: "We were called at 10.54am on Wednesday, July 16 to a report of a non-suspicious death.
"The case is now with the city's coroner."
The Rollason is a budget hotel at the junction of Rollason Road and Wood End Road.
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How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock
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Possibly he felt that her flirtatious manner justified his actions; a few years later, when his long-term mistress Doll Lane was violently assaulted, he argued that she had no right to complain, given her willingness to have sex with him. Even more objectionable was his response to a gang rape witnessed from his carriage: 'God forgive me, what thoughts and wishes I had of being in their place.' Despite finding such behaviour repugnant, Bédoyère is reluctant to call Pepys a sex pest — although his own theory that the diarist was a sex addict seems equally unsatisfactory. So should we simply accept that Pepys was a man of his time who cannot be judged by modern standards? Certainly many of his friends — including his work crony Peter Llewellyn, who gleefully shared a story about a mutual acquaintance posing as a physician in order to fondle a woman's genitals — could be equally boorish. And yet it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Pepys did know better. For one thing, he expected high moral standards from other people: this was a man who disapproved of (among other things) lecherous courtiers, his brother's interest in a pretty new maid, and women who cheated on their husbands. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Throughout the diary, he repeatedly declared himself 'ashamed' of his conduct, vowed to reform his ways, and was plagued by fears of discovery. When Elizabeth found him fondling their maidservant Deb Willett and threw the girl out of their house, it was not his wife's upset but her threats to 'publish my shame' that truly alarmed him. For a brief period, Pepys was chastened, too afraid of Elizabeth's anger even to 'look about me to see the fine faces'. But he was soon back to his old ways, seeking out new women and plotting to take Deb's virginity despite her obvious reluctance to touch him, his predatory behaviour continuing right up to the diary's final entry — and doubtless beyond. Bédoyère's focus on Pepys's unsavoury behaviour ultimately does the diarist no favours; his sexual exploits are much easier to stomach in wider-ranging editions, where they form just part of the rich tapestry of his undeniably interesting life. Nevertheless, this portrait of a deeply flawed man enhances our understanding of one of England's great diarists — even as it forces us to confront the fact that even interesting and extremely likeable people can behave very unpleasantly behind closed Confessions of Samuel Pepys: His Private Revelations by Guy de la Bédoyère (Abacus £25 pp400). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members

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