Dame Beryl Bainbridge died yesterday at the age of 75 at the London Hospital. She was admitted into hospital last week after cancer reared its head again and she passed away due to a short illness in the early hours of the morning.
Liverpool-born Beryl was famously shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize on five occasions, although she was a two-time winner of the Whitbread award and she was awarded a DBE in 2000. The author was famous for her dark, witty, historical novels and has written ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ and ‘Master Georgie’ amongst 16 other novels and one to follow.
According to the Guardian, Beryl had been working on a new book ‘The Girl In The Polka-Dot Dress’, her first since the publication of ‘According To Queeney’ in 2001. The book is about the assasination of Bobby Kennedy and is due for release next year.
Friends and acquaintances describe Beryl as a funny maverick whom everyone adored. She will be sorely missed.
