Charles Brooker obituary
My father, Charles Brooker, who has died aged 83, worked hard in a voluntary capacity for his local community in Greenwich, south-east London, for more than 30 years.His day job was, for most of his...
View ArticleLetters: James Garner always made it seem as though he was not acting at all
Fred Lee writes: James Garner co-starred with Joanne Woodward in an excellent adaptation of Anne Tyler's novel Breathing Lessons. Made for TV in 1994, it is a story of a middle-aged couple...
View ArticleRob Potter obituary
My friend Rob Potter, who has died of cancer aged 64, was a talented human geographer. An innovative researcher, he was a pioneer in the interdisciplinary field of development studies and a physical...
View ArticleHarriet Barber obituary
My friend Harriet Barber, who has died aged 46 of cancer, was the painter nonpareil of the Dorset coast, especially Ringstead Bay. She returned again and again to capture the edge of the sea, shore and...
View ArticleDavid Brown obituary
Leading authority on Russian music with a long-running interest in the enigmatic character of TchaikovskyThe musicologist David Brown, who has died aged 84 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was...
View ArticlePhilip Cornwell obituary
My friend Philip Cornwell, who has died aged 67 from multiple myeloma, had a successful career in transport planning before devoting his time to charity, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of...
View ArticleDora Bryan obituary
She was the versatile stalwart of stage and screen from A Taste of Honey to Hello Dolly!Dora Bryan, who has died aged 91, started out as a dancing and singing actress, making her first professional...
View ArticleOn Kawara obituary
Japanese artist fascinated by the passage of time, which he recorded in thousands of 'Date Paintings'The Japanese artist On Kawara, who has died aged 81, would not have wanted an obituary like this. He...
View ArticleJohn Collard obituary
My colleague John Collard, who has died aged 72, was a former managing editor of BBC Radio Stoke and a distinguished BBC journalist for many years before that.Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, to Lydia...
View ArticleOtto Piene obituary
German artist fascinated by the play of lightGiven the nihilist mood in German art after the war, it was only a matter of time before one group trumped all the others and called itself "Zero". The...
View ArticleHelvecia Hidalgo obituary
My mother, Helvecia Hidalgo, who has died aged 91, was one of 3,800 children evacuated to the UK from northern Spain after the bombing of Guernica by fascists during the Spanish civil war in April...
View ArticleFrank Mumford obituary
My friend Frank Mumford, who has died aged 95, had a career as a marionette master spanning eight decades. He and his wife, Maisie, presented their speciality act, the Mumford Puppets, for royalty and...
View ArticleLetter: 'Gerard Benson and the Barrow Poets were electrifying'
I first encountered the fabulous Gerard Benson in the very early 1970s when the Barrow Poets played in a scrubby basement in the Sir Christopher Wren pub in the old Paternoster Square, by St Paul's...
View ArticleLettice Curtis obituary
Pioneering pilot who ferried nearly 1,500 aircraft during the second world warIn 1942, during a "hustle tour" of Britain, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the US president, arrived, with Clementine...
View ArticleCarlo Bergonzi obituary
Italian tenor admired as an authoritative interpreter of VerdiThere was no finer interpreter of Donizetti's, Verdi's and Puccini's tenor roles throughout his long career than Carlo Bergonzi, who has...
View ArticleKarl Albrecht obituary
Co-founder with his brother of discount retailer Aldi, he became Germany's wealthiest manKarl Albrecht, who has died aged 94, was the co-founder with his younger brother Theo of Aldi, one of the...
View ArticleBrian Innes obituary
Percussionist and Goon-ish comic of the Temperance Seven who became a successful partwork publisherPart offshoot of the trad jazz movement and part offspring of the British surrealism of the Goons and...
View ArticleLetter: 'Noël Coward hugely admired Elaine Stritch'
In 1961 Noël Coward cast Elaine Stritch as Mimi Paragon in his musical Sail Away, for which she later received a Tony nomination. Coward, who knew a thing or two about leading ladies, had huge...
View ArticleLetter: 'Martin Dent's eccentricities ought not to be lost with his passing'
Martin Dent taught at Keele University while I was a student there from 1967 until 1972. One or two of his eccentricities, still vivid in my mind, ought not be lost with his passing. When his phone...
View ArticleVal Biro obituary
Children's author and illustrator who created Gumdrop, the adventurous vintage carThe children's author and illustrator Val Biro, who has died aged 92, was best known as the creator of Gumdrop, an aged...
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