Obituaries
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David Cairns: Roman Catholic priest who became MP for Inverclyde and a rising star of the Labour Party
David Cairns, Labour Member of Parliament for Inverclyde, has died at the age of 44.
Inside Obituaries
Paul Marcus: TV producer and director who was a driving force behind Prime Suspect
Friday, 13 May 2011
It seems apt that Paul Marcus should have gained some of his first experiences as a television producer on Prime Suspect. The Lynda La Plante-created crime drama starred Helen Mirren as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, a woman facing sexism from her male colleagues after being put in charge of murder cases. Marcus's own father, the playwright Frank Marcus, was a German-born Jew who fled to Britain in 1939 and was admired for writing strong female roles, notably that of Beryl Reid's lesbian and washed-up soap-opera character in The Killing of Sister George. He did not seek to promote feminism, but most of his plays featured dominant women.
Craig Thomas: Author of Cold War spy stories and inventor of the techno-thriller
Friday, 13 May 2011
Craig Thomas wrote 18 novels, six of which were bestsellers. But the book that brought him global fame was Firefox, after it was adapted for a Hollywood film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The blockbuster sold so well that its author was able to give up teaching in 1978 and live as a full-time writer.
Sir Denis Mahon: Art collector who fought for free admission charges
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Following the recent death of the Duke of Grafton we have lost, with the death of Denis Mahon, the last of that generation of men of independent means who dedicated their lives to the public good.
Lidia Gueiler Tejada: Politician who became only the West's second female president
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Many outside her native Bolivia may never have heard the name Lidia Gueiler. But women politicians such as Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin might still like to emulate her as their nation's first female president. Although it was for just eight months in 1979-80 – between two of her nation's traditional coups d'état – Gueiler became only the second female president in the western hemisphere. That was five years after Argentina's Isabel Peró* broke the masculine mould, though she was not averse to playing the grieving-widow card on the back of her late husband Juan Perón's popularity.
Bill Justice: Animator and Disney mainstay across five decades
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Bill Justice, Disney animator and imagineer, worked on such classics as Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
Gunter Sachs: Playboy and husband of Brigitte Bardot who helped put Saint-Tropez and St Moritz on the jet-set map
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
When the German multi-millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs began romancing the French screen idol Brigitte Bardot in May 1966, he didn't do things by halves. After he arranged for a helicopter to drop hundreds of red roses over La Madrague, her Côte d'Azur property, the then most desirable woman in the world certainly paid attention. "It's not every day a man drops a ton of roses in your backyard," Bardot later wrote in Initiales BB, her autobiography. Her sex kitten role in And God Created Woman, directed in 1956 by her first husband Roger Vadim, had already put Saint-Tropez on the map but her relationship with Sachs, covered in great detail by paparazzi and reporters, transformed what had been a sleepy Mediterranean fishing harbour into a must-visit destination for the jet set.
Wouter Weylandt: Cyclist who enlivened the peloton with his laconic sense of humour
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Wouter Weylandt's violent death in a 60mph descent on stage three of the Giro D'Italia on Tuesday was not just shocking because it was so unexpected. As the current race leader David Millar said, "It's hard to believe that Wouter is dead because he was so alive."
Anne Blonstein: Experimental poet whose work was informed by her scientific background
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
In her measures and encryptions, Anne Blonstein was a poet in and for our digital times. To read her poetry is to be made to reflect on what reading is. In code-breaking, the keyboard is where both encryption and decryption happen. A poem, Blonstein writes, should work on "the inner keyboard" of the reader's mind, disrupting the brain's "automatised" processes of transmission and interpretation.
John Walker: Singer with the Walker Brothers, whose fame briefly rivalled the Beatles’
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
In 1964 three unrelated Americans, Scott Engel, John Maus and Gary Leeds became the Walker Brothers, and once settled in London had No 1 hits with "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore".
Severiano Ballesteros: Golfer whose swashbuckling style thrilled crowds, won him five majors and transformed the Ryder Cup
Monday, 9 May 2011
Just as football has its folklore involving the future legends of the game learning their tricks on the beaches of Brazil using balls made out of rags, so golf has the tale of Severiano Ballesteros.
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2 Paul Marcus: TV producer and director who was a driving force behind Prime Suspect
3 Obituary: Mother Teresa of Calcutta
8 Craig Thomas: Author of Cold War spy stories and inventor of the techno-thriller
9 Pauline Baynes: Illustrator who depicted Lewis's Narnia and Tolkien's Middle-earth
15 John Walker: Singer with the Walker Brothers, whose fame briefly rivalled the Beatles’
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