Edna O’Brien obituary

Novelist who scandalised her native Ireland with The Country Girls, and explored the lives of women who love and suffer

Richard Simmons obituary

American fitness instructor and weight-loss expert who became a popular television celebrity

Other lives: Biographer of Sir William Jones, the Welsh orientalist and polymath

American therapist, author and broadcaster known as Dr Ruth who talked openly about sex on her radio and TV shows

Other lives: Teacher and arts administrator who played an important part in the early days of the TS Eliot prize

Provocative but witty literary critic known for his satirical Winnie the Pooh essays and his opposition to Freudianism

Author, scholar and historian who enjoyed success with his 1983 novel The Arabian Nightmare

Other lives: Poet and educator whose books transformed the teaching of poetry-writing in schools

One of Albania’s greatest writers who explored the ugliness and dignity of this ancient and long-oppressed nation

Other lives: Historian of child actors in British theatre and lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University

Belfast-born poet, academic and essayist whose work explored the everyday with wit and straightforward syntax

Graphic designer and typographer who was the art director of Nova and the Independent magazine

Other lives: History teacher and writer on the leading figures of the Russian revolution

Other lives: Feminist poet and editor best known for the anthology Bread and Roses: Women’s Poetry of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Archaeologist who became a leading authority on the history of Greek art, with a particular interest in gems and finger rings