Peter Messent obituary

Other lives: Professor of American studies at Nottingham University and an authority on the writer Mark Twain

Dan Simmons obituary

Multi-award-winning writer best known for his speculative fiction, but whose novels and novellas also spanned genres from crime to historical

Other lives: Lecturer in creative writing for 26 years at Hornsey College of Art in London

Artist and writer who found fame late in life when she popularised the concept of ‘death cleaning’

Other lives: Literary editor of New Society and New Statesman who wrote a social history of polio, a disease he contracted in his late teens

Writer whose ‘anti-Bond’ hero in his 1962 novel The Ipcress File had a seismic impact on spy fiction

Leading child psychiatrist known for developing a simple questionnaire (SDQ) to determine the state of a young person’s mental health

Philosopher and social theorist who advocated a new direction for German thought after the horrors of Nazi rule

Other lives: English teacher who played key roles in the founding of Carcanet Press and the magazine PN Review

Stage and screen actor hailed for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for her TV role as Marie Curie

Historian and biographer of polar explorers whose book on Scott and Amundsen sparked controversy

Stylish newspaper and magazine journalist who enjoyed great success with her book Modern Manners, a guide to etiquette

Other lives: Journalist at the Times Educational Supplement who later wrote a crime novel set in Cornwall

Other lives: Award-winning poet and arts administrator working with First Nations artists in Western Australia

Dutch novelist, poet and travel writer who reported on the Hungarian revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall