The novelist, playwright, Fleet Street columnist and social commentator Keith Waterhouse has died at the age of 80. He worked for 35 years, until 1986 as a columnist in the Daily Mirror and then until this year for the Mail newspaper. He never missed a deadline and his columns were always witty, at times satirical, but always contained pertinent social comment. He was also prolific novelist and playwright, his most famous play being Billy Liar, with the film version being released in 1959. He also wrote for television, notably The Frost Report and the Worzel Gummidge series. Wellington City Libraries holds 17 of his novels and many collections of his newspaper columns. His comic novels include Mrs. Pooter’s Diary, Bimbo, Palace Pier and his last, Good Grief.

The much acclaimed prolific Western writer Elmer Kelton has died aged 83. He began his career as a journalist after serving in the United States Army during World War II. He was farm and ranch editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times for 15 years, then spent 22 years as editor of Livestock Weekly.  His first short story was published 1948 and his first novel Hot Iron in 1955. From then he published over 60 fiction and non-fiction titles. His novel, The good old boys was published in 1978 and was made into a television movie in 1995. He received numerous awards for his fiction, the most acclaimed being, The time it never rained, published in 1974, The man who rode Midnight published in 1988 and most recently Way of the Coyote published in 2002.

Elmer Kelton was more than a typical Western writer, with most of his novels set in recent times with characters facing the problems of modern day range life.

‘It’s love isn’t it?‘ was released in 2008 a year after the death of  his wife and poet Meg Campbell, and now, a year later, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell has passed away.

The reading of this anthology in 2008 was a bittersweet pleasure in that Alistair had assembled the poems himself, placing the similarly themed poems of Meg’s on every facing page beside one of his.

The order of these poems would change so that where previously one of Alistair’s led now it was Meg’s. At some point in the list of contents at the front of the book the author is no longer stated and it is up to the reader to decide which poem belongs to which author, which narrative to which person. That sometimes this seems impossible is tribute to the strong, undeniable thread that ran between them.

John O’Connor wrote that, ‘Campbell’s oeuvre is vital, and varied in subject, voice and structure…’ and even the assembly of an anthology by Campbell becomes personal, structurally creative and heartbreakingly revealing.

‘The dark lord of Savaiki : collected poems,’ is a good place to start for insight into all the periods of this great writer’s work. It contains poems about love, Kapiti, Gallipoli, his Polynesian ancestors, madness and Meg…

Actor David Carradine died on the 3rd of June in Bangkok, Thailand, aged 72 years.

Carradine was the eldest son of legendary character actor John Carradine. He was born in Hollywood and educated at San Francisco State College, where he studied music theory and composition. It was while writing music for the Drama Department’s annual revues that he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a Shakespearean repertory company and learning his craft on his feet.

His first break came when he was cast opposite Barbara Hershey in ‘Boxcar Bertha‘, but he would go on to become best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine (’Grasshopper’), a Shaolin priest travelling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series “Kung Fu,” which aired in 1972-75.  His subsequent career included more than 100 feature films, including the cult movie ‘Death Race 2000‘ as well as a return to TV, playing the grandson of his original character in ‘Kung Fu: The Legend Continues’ (1993-1997).

Carradine received the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Film Review as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie in ‘Bound for Glory‘ (1976)  and won critical acclaim for his work as Cole Younger in ‘The Long Riders‘ (1980), and a second Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in ‘North & South‘ (1985).

While Carradine spent the majority of the 80’s & 90’s in low budget B movies Quentin Tarantino resurrected his career in 2003, casting him as the title character in ‘Kill Bill, Vol. 1‘, & ‘Kill Bill, Vol. 2‘, where his portrayal of ‘Bill’ the sinister sword wielding head of a team of crack assassins, gained him a new cult following & his fourth Golden Globe nomination.

Science Fantasy writer David Eddings has died aged 77. Born in Spokane, Washington State in 1931 he studied Middle English at University. After a short time in the army he spent a period working on missile development. His first novel, a contemporary adventure titled High hunt, was published in 1973. He changed to science fantasy after seeing the continual reprintings of Lord of the Rings, then in its 73rd reprint. He became one of the most popular writers of his chosen genre, with each new book reaching the top ten best seller lists. Nearly all his work was in series form, which allowed a deeper character and story line development. These series began with the Belgariad series, with the first book, Pawn of Phrophecy published in 1982. This series was followed by the Malloreon, the Elenium, the Tamuli and the Dreamers series. The Younger Gods was his last novel in the Dreamers series published in 2006. The only stand alone science fantasy novel by David Eddings was The Redemption of Athalus published in 2000.