The modest violet. Response to ‘The Burkitt affair revisited’

Extract

Buried deep in the Goodwin Collection are five passport-style photographs of the man himself, memorable for their informality and their eccentricity. In the first photograph Goodwin looks directly at the camera, the sober academic. In the second, mouth ajar, he looks up to the heavens. In the third, in a different jacket, he gazes off into the distance, wistful as a pre-Raphaelite virgin. Pencilled on the back, in Goodwin's handwriting, is the word ‘Soulful’. A fourth image has him grinning at the camera. In a final photograph he looks to the floor. Pencilled on the back is the caption ‘The Modest Violet’.