The popular American crime writer Elmore Leonard has died aged 87. He was born in New Orleans in 1925, after serving in the Navy during World War II, he graduated from the University of Detroit and began work as a copy writer with an advertising agency. Here he began his writing career firstly with short stories, with his first publication in 1951.He continued with short stories throughout his career, but moved onto writing Western novels, the first The Bounty Hunters being published in 1953. Through the years he went on to write crime and mystery novels, also screen plays. 19 movies and 7 television series have been adapted from Elmore Leonard’s short stories and novels, the best known are the crime-comedy Get Shorty, the western 3.10 to Yuma, adapted in 1957 and again in 2007, Hombre adapted in 1967 and The Big Bounce adapted in 1969 and again 2004. His last novel Raylan published in 2012 has been adapted, with several other Leonard works into the continuing television series Justified.

The well known fiction and screenplay writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has died in New York aged 85 years. Born in Cologne to Polish Jewish parents, the family moved to Britain in 1939, where she received her education. In 1951 she married an Indian Parsi architect, and spent the next 64 years living in Delhi. Her first novel, To Whom She Will was published in 1955. Eleven more novels and eight collections of short stories would follow, all much acclaimed and most set in India. Her novel titled Heat and Dust, published in 1975, was the Booker Prize winner for that year. The same year she moved to New York, and began working with film makers Merchant and Ivory, as a screen writer, producing 23 screenplays, winning two Oscars for A Room with a View in 1985 and Howards End in 1992. Her last published fiction was My Nine Lives in 2004, although she completed two screenplays after with the last in 2008.

Chinua Achebe has died aged 82 in Boston. Born in 1930 in Nigeria he studied literature and medicine. After graduating he worked for the Nigeria Broadcasting Company, eventually becoming the Director. His first novel titled, Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 and has since sold 8 million copies and has been translated in 50 different languages. He went to America in 1966 and taught at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut, ending his teaching career as Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. From his first novel he went on to have 4 other novels published, 8 collections of short stories, 6 collections of poetry, 8 works of non-fiction that include essays and political commentary, and 4 books for children. In 2007 he was awarded The Man Booker International Prize.

The much enjoyed writer Barbara Anderson has died aged 86. She began writing in her later life after a career of teaching. Her first book of short stories titled, I think We Should Go into the Jungle was published in 1993. This was followed by seven novels, and two collections of short stories, that included, All the Nice Girls, published in 1995 and Long Hot Summer, published in 1999. Her autobiography, titled Getting There: an autobiography was published in 2008.

The well-know and much admired horror writer James Herbert has died aged 69 years.
Born in London in 1943 he began writing at the age of 28. His first book, a disaster novel titled The Rats was published in 1974 and his writing was continual, producing a novel nearly every year, with a total of 23 novels along with a number of short stories. Over 54 million copies of his novels were sold world wide and were translated into 34 languages. James Herbert also designed his own book covers. Five of his novels were adapted into film, with The Rats also being made into a computer game. His last novel, Ash was published in 2012.

Prolific author Bryce Courtenay has died aged 79, just 2 weeks after the publication of his twentieth novel titled, Jack of Diamonds. Although born in South Africa he immigrated to Australia in 1959. His fiction is set mainly in Australia, with four novels set in South Africa. His first novel, The Power of One, set in the country of his birth, was published in 1989 and became an immediate best seller, launching his career as a very popular, best selling author. His only non-fictional work, April Fool’s day: a modern tragedy, published in 1993, was based on the death of his son in 1991.