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Dame Beryl Bainbridge, author of Master Georgie and An Awfully Big Adventure, has died aged 75. She passed away in the early hours of this morning (2 July), having been admitted to hospital earlier in the week.
Andrew Hewson, literary agent for Johnson & Alcock, told The Bookseller: "To us Beryl was a very special author and a very special person, someone we loved to bits and we will miss her terribly." Hewson had been Bainbridge's agent since 1983; prior to that, she was unagented.
Richard Beswick, Bainbridge's editor at Little, Brown, added: "It is incredibly sad. She was a fantastic person and writer - a real original, I don't think she can be compared to any other contemporary writers."
He paid tribute to her "very particular morbid sense of humour", adding: "She was just a wonderfully lovely, kind, wam funny person, and a real joy to work with."
Beswick confirmed Bainbridge had been "putting the finishing touches" to a new novel called The Girl in The Polka Dot Dress when she went into hospital. "I've read most of it and it's real vintage Beryl," he said. It will be published "some time next year", although no date has yet been set.
Bainbridge, who was published by Duckworth before moving over to Abacus in 2001, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times - for The Dressmaker (1973), The Bottle Factory Outing (1974), An Awfully Big Adventure (1989), Every Man For Himself (1996) and Master Georgie (1998) - but never won. She was awarded a DBE in 2000.