Necrology – a list of notable people who have died recently
:
- Raymond Allchin, 1923-2010
Archaeologist and cultural historian of ancient India - Russell Ash, 1946-2010
Author and publisher - Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010
Sculptor whose unsettling, autobiographical work won global recognition only in her seventies - Maureen Forrester, 1930-2010
Feisty contralto who inherited Kathleen Ferrier’s Mahlerian mantle and became a popular operatic diva - John Hedgecoe, 1937-2010
Photographer, writer and professor - Sebastian Horsley, 1962-2010
English artist and author - Laurence Malcolm, 1929-2010
Fomer Professor of Community Health in Wellington, consultant in health services research and development - Jim Marshall, 1936-2010
Photographer who captured the personalities of rock and roll, from the Beatles and Hendrix to The Cult - Rue McClanahan, 1935-2010
Man-eating star of The Golden Girls who acquired and discarded many a husband in real life - Ronald Neame, 1911-2010
Cinematographer, producer and director whose talents brought lustre to many great British films - Sigmar Polke, 1941-2010
Wildly-experimental German who subverted Warhol and became one of the world’s most important artists - Jose Saramago, 1922-2010
Controversial novelist who became the first writer in Portuguese to win the Nobel Prize for Literature - Giuseppe Taddei, 1916-2010
Baritone of liquid voice who made a belated Met debut and shaped up with spaghetti to excel as Falstaff
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 
Luckily Sebastian Horsley wrote his autobiography Dandy in the underworld when he did.
I’d highly recommend it – you couldn’t invent such a hothouse of a character. Crucifying himself for art, hoovering up drugs like a Dyson, having mad relationships with old school crims.
Just discovered his blog, this prophetic post from January 2008:
“It is January. Another … year. Look at me. I am a useless dandy. I am almost bankrupt. I will either commit suicide or die at the age of 45 because I will have said all there is to say … will you marry me?”