LOST CHORD

hen the world reels from natural disaster or tragedy inflicted by the human race, writers respond by writing about it. The material that’s produced fixes events for posterity and at the same time provides catharsis for the writers. Pliny’s letters of 79 AD gave us much of our knowledge of the eruption of Vesuvius that devastated Pompeii. Owen, Sassoon, Brooke and Blunden revealed the horrors of the first World War. The Hillsborough disaster prompted such an outpouring of reaction from the people of Liverpool that a file filled with their poems was lodged at the local radio station. After the tragedy of 9/11, Simon