Authors Last A Long Time, But....

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

Jurassic Park series author and film director Michael Crichton has died after a "very private" battle with cancer at the age of 66. Can only find several news sources so as of yet, no assertion of what kind of cancer it was

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Missed it by two minutes. http://www.deathlist.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6662

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

Yep.....

[Pagad Ultimo 6]

One of the most famous contemporary Russian writers, Vasily Aksyonov, 76, remains in critical condition after suffering a stroke in January. No recent link in English but it is reported here that the left hemisphere of his brain is dead, and he will never be able to walk again. Potential candidate for 2009.

 

Not sure about his UK obit chances, anyone else be able to make an intelligent guess on that?

 

Think there is a chance of The Independent obit. Aksyonov in Wikipedia.

[TAFKAG 70]

The other literary William Gibson has died.

[Phantom 2,533]

Terry Pratchett to be knighted in New Year's Honours List

[Raskolnikov 0]

It's probably about time I declared a vested interest in this thread seeing as I work for a well known chain of bookshops, so humour me while I ramble on with a few suggestions.

 

Diana Athill recently turned 91 and has just won the biography category of the Costa Book of the Year Awards for her account of what it's like to be old and approaching death. Not only is she a nonagenarian, but she is also deaf and has problems with mobility although according to this article, she still drives (badly by the sounds of it).

 

Rather splendidly, Athill is still driving. She finds it difficult to walk, but when she gets in her car "off you whiz just like everyone else, restored to freedom, restored (almost to youth)." She has had a few scrapes in the past year or so – one the result of "being an overtired old person flustered by her own silliness". It is to her credit that she both carries on driving and can admit her own mistakes.

 

Away from Diana, there seems to be a build up of veteran British authors going on at Penguin Publishing. Sir John Mortimer and Dick Francis have their own threads, but you can also add PD James and Richard Adams to the list. James seems to be in good health at the moment, but the occasional picture of Adams I have seen over the past couple of years shows him looking extremely frail. Of the four, I would say Mortimer is closest to carking it, and next time I see our sales rep from Penguin I'll casually enquire after his health, and perhaps one of the others if it doesn't look too suspicious.

 

There are also a clutch of bestselling author's in the 75-80 age bracket who should be creeping onto deadpooler's radars over the next few years. Most notable among them I would say, are, Clive Cussler (77), Wilbur Smith (76), Jack Higgins (79), Chinua Achebe (78), Quentin Blake (76), John Julius Norwich (79), and David Eddings (77). Out of those, the one to keep a closest eye on would be Achebe as he has been confined to a wheelchair since 1990 following a car accident. Having said that, there does seem to be a recent trend of at least one high profile Science-Fiction author falling prey to the Grim Reaper per year, with David Gemmell going in 2006, Robert Jordan in 2007, and Arthur C. Clarke going last year, as well as Pratchett going down with Alzheimer's, so, assuming Eddings isn't this year's victim, he could be one to consider in future.

 

And just to conclude. Prolific author of naval fiction Douglas Reeman is 84, Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing is 89, Nina Bawden turns 84 next week, Rosamunde Pilcher is also 84, K.M. Peyton, who wrote the Flambards series, and who I thought died years ago, is 79, and children's author Eva Ibbotson is 83. Unfortunately I don't have any detailed info on the health of any of them as author's tend to keep themselves very much to themselves as proved by Michael Crichton and George MacDonald Fraser, but hey, I've put their names out there for you to investigate in more detail should you wish.

 

And here endeth my epistle.

[grobler 35]

And here endeth my epistle.

 

and a very interesting epistle it was !

I shall certainly be keeping a close eye on this lot !

[HadesKatie 0]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_en_ot/obit_calisher_1

 

Hortense Calisher has died at 97.

[Guest Guest]

John Updike has died at 76 of lung cancer.

[Paul Bearer 6,102]

John Updike has died at 76 of lung cancer.

 

No sh*t sherlock...................... Already posted in the dead of 2009 thread

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Lino Aldani, better known to Italians that those outside. But an author, and now dead.

[Raskolnikov 0]

Someone who I think would make prime DL material, and who I'm amazed to see has barely been mentioned before is travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who turned 94 today, and who, it is fair to say, has had a rather eventful life. Not only is he widely regarded as Britain's greatest living travel writer, he also distinguished himself in WW2 when, as an SOE agent, he kidnapped the German commander in Crete. This episode was then made into the film Ill Met by Moonlight in which he was played by Dirk Bogarde. Post war he embarked on his writing career and established a correspondence with the Duchess of Devonshire* which has lasted right up to the present day.

 

The most recent update I've found on him is this interview with the Telegraph from last Autumn which is worth a read if you've got a spare 10 minutes, though from a deadpooler's point of view, the following extract is probably the most useful:

 

He trailed off. 'The amount that can go wrong at this age - you've no idea. This year I've acquired something called tunnel vision. Very odd, and sometimes quite interesting. When I look at someone I can see four eyes, one of them huge and stuck to the side of the mouth. Everyone starts looking a bit like a Picasso painting.'

 

He paused and considered for a moment, as if confronted by the condition for the first time. 'And, to be honest, my memory is not in very good shape either. Anything like a date or a proper name just takes wing, and quite often never comes back. Winston Churchill - couldn't remember his name last week.

 

'Even swimming is a bit of a trial now,' he continued, 'thanks to this bloody clock thing they've put in me - what d'they call it? A pacemaker. It doesn't mind the swimming. But it doesn't like the steps on the way down. Terrific nuisance.'

 

* Who is the last remaining Mitford sister, and imho another potential DL candidate in the future.

[TAFKAG 70]

Someone who I think would make prime DL material, and who I'm amazed to see has barely been mentioned before is travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor...

He made my DDP final 30, if it's any consolation. As did the unselected 92(allegedly)-year-old Egon Ronay, who has, as far as the search function indicates, never once been mentioned here.

[Ulitzer95 12,596]

Edward Upward.. supposedly Britain's oldest author has died at 105.

[Lard Bazaar 3,799]

Edward Upward.. supposedly Britain's oldest author has died at 105.

 

Died on the 13th as well according to that link, so extra points, and by a quick reckoning (it's late so I could be wrong) sends me storming into the top ten.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

You can storm up the DDP, and enjoy a little surge on the Deathrace too.

 

Ed is one I had on deadpools a couple of years back. But he'll net me nowt this year.

[Canadian Paul 97]

You can storm up the DDP, and enjoy a little surge on the Deathrace too.

 

Ed is one I had on deadpools a couple of years back. But he'll net me nowt this year.

 

A proud member of my HDP team... sadly third from the bottom though.

[TAFKAG 70]

Whitbread Prize-winning author Christopher Nolan has died aged 43. Nolan endured a most unfortunate life - he went to school with all of U2.

 

He had severe cerebral palsy too.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

So Edward Upward is dead.....maybe it's time we started keeping an eye on the obit-worthy; Leonora Carrington.

[Raskolnikov 0]

Long before Al Gore set his environmental bandwagon in motion, eminent scientist, and best selling author James Lovelock was already raising the awareness of global warning with his Gaia hypothesis in the 1960's. And Lovelock is back in the news at the moment with the publication of his latest book 'The Vanishing Face of Gaia' which the author himself has described as his "final warning". Whether he offers that 'final warning' from a scaremongering point of view or whether, at the age of 89, he doesn't expect to live long enough to issue any further warnings remains to be seen, but if nothing else it's about time his name was mentioned on these boards.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Good point Raskolnikov, but yer man Lovelock sounded very chipper on Radio Four this morning. In fact, I found myself wondering how old he was, guessing he sounded around 70. He may well make 100.

[Raskolnikov 0]

Good point Raskolnikov, but yer man Lovelock sounded very chipper on Radio Four this morning. In fact, I found myself wondering how old he was, guessing he sounded around 70. He may well make 100.

 

You may well be right, and I did toy with the idea of posting him in the 'Who's going to be around for a while' thread. However, as my second link above mentioned, he does harbour hopes of becoming a space tourist, and it sounds as if it's going to happen sooner rather than later,

 

Meanwhile Lovelock is about to blast off into space, courtesy of Sir Richard Branson's “ultimate upgrade” on Virgin Intergalactic. He wants to see the Earth before she fades from the blue and green we know to the brown that he fears.

 

If that goes ahead, then I don't care how healthy an 89 year old body you've got, it's going to be put under some serious strain during blast off.

[Twelvetrees 10]

The science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer lasted a long time - until yesterday, that is.

 

I do hope this is the right thread...you can get in so much trouble these days.

[The Unknown Man 584]

The science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer lasted a long time - until yesterday, that is.

 

I do hope this is the right thread...you can get in so much trouble these days.

 

And a pick on my CPDP theme team.