Some well-known people who have died recently
Gerard Benson, 1931-2014
Poet who brought Hardy and Milton, Auden and Yeats to the London Underground
- Patsy Byrne, 1933-2014
Actress with the RSC who later played the dim-witted Nursie in Blackadder
- Felix Dennis, 1947-2014
Hedonistic publisher behind Oz and The Week who dreamed of being a great poet but found his true forte was making money
- James Douglas-Home, 1952-2014
Racehorse trainer and writer who castigated the new Ascot racecourse as one of the ‘world’s worst dumps’
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, 1933-2014
Spanish-born conductor of German parentage who blended Teutonic precision with Iberian sensuality
- Eric Hill, 1927-2014
Author and illustrator whose Spot the Dog books delighted children worldwide
- Sam Kelly, 1943-2014
English character actor who appeared in Porridge, and ‘Allo, ‘allo
- Daniel Keyes, 1927-2014
Novelist who explored the byways of the brain, notably in the bestselling Flowers for Algernon
Francis Matthews, 1927-2014
Actor who played the debonair detective Paul Temple and voiced Captain Scarlet
- Peter Matthiessen, 1927-2014
Author, naturalist and reluctant CIA agent who gave up espionage to champion a different kind of wild life in his bestseller The snow leopard
- Rik Mayall, 1958-2014
Anarchic comedian who took on the British Establishment in The young ones, and The new statesman
- Josephine Pullein-Thompson, 1924-2014
Author whose pony club novels thrilled a generation of girls with the jolly adventures of the gymkhana set
Jimmy Scott, 1925-2014
Jazz singer who was later in Twin Peaks
- Horace Silver, 1928-2014
Jazz pianist and composer behind Latin and hard-bop tunes that became post-war standards
- Eli Wallach, 1915-2014
Masterly and versatile actor of stage and screen who particularly delighted in playing villains
- Bobby Womack, 1944-2014
‘Soul survivor’ of an astonishingly lurid lifestyle who fused passionate gospel and dulcet crooning
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