Deaths in November - 2024

Janey Godley, Scottish comedian, died of cancer on 2 November aged 63. She wrote a memoir, Handstands in the Dark: A True Story of Growing Up and Survival and a novel, Nothing Left Unsaid.

Music producer Quincy Jones died November 3 at the age of 91. His books include Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones and 12 Notes: On Life and Creativity.

Writer and sociologist Juan José Sebreli died November 1 aged 93. Sebreli's works include El olvido de la razon, Comediantes y mártires. Ensayo contra los mitos, and El Asedio a la Modernidad.

Historian of science Michael Ruse died November 1 aged 84. Ruse's works include The evolution-creation struggle, The Darwinian revolution : science red in tooth and claw, and (as co-editor) Evolution : the first four billion years.

Journalist Charles Fenyvesi died November 3 aged 86. Fenyvesi's works include When the world was whole : three centuries of memories, Trees : for shelter and shade, for memory and magic, and Splendor in exile : the ex-majesties of Europe.

The American experiment died November 5, aged 248. Too many books about it have been written to link here.

>4 KeithChaffee: 😢💔

Author Dorothy Allison died November 6 at the age of 75. Her many books include Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller, and Trash.

>6 IlexIbex: Her books are so good.

NASCAR driver Bobby Allison died November 9 at the age of 86. He wrote Bobby Allison: A Racer's Racer and Stock Car Legends Reunion.

Dancer Judith Jamison died November 9 at the age of 81. She wrote Dancing Spirit.

Musician Ella Jenkins died November 9, at the age of 100.

>9 varielle: She was an amazing dancer and choreographer. I wish that I had seen her in person.

>10 lilithcat: I was lucky enough to grow up in the Chicago area, and Ms Jenkins performed at my grade school when I was a kid.

Two national treasures.

Writer, editor, actor, and screenwriter Tim (Timothy Robert) Sullivan died November 10 aged 78. Sullivan's works include: three V novels, include V: The Florida Project; The parasite war; and stories in The Ultimate Dracula, The 1983 Annual World's Best SF, and The Ultimate Witch.

Author and illustrator of children's books Bruce Degen died November 7 aged 79. Degen's works include the Commander Toad series with Jane Yolen, the Magic School Bus TV Series with Joanna Cole, and Jamberry.

Academic, writer and Women's Liberation Movement activist Cora Kaplan (1940-2024) has died - I saw a post from her friend Lynne Segal on Facebook. She was a professor in English Literature and worked at several universities including University of Southampton and the University of Sussex in England and Rutgers in the US. Her books include Sea Changes: Culture and Feminism and she was co-editor of James Baldwin: America and Beyond. She also wrote the introductions to the Virago Modern Classics editions of Tillie Olsen's Tell Me a Riddle and Yonnondio. Will be looking out for further details.

Actor Timothy West died on 12 November aged 90. He was an actor on stage, screen and radio and recorded many unabridged audiobooks including Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles and Palliser novels, and 7 Flashman books. His stage roles included King Lear, Macbeth and other Shakespeare and his TV work included adaptations from books by Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie. His autobiography was A Moment Towards the End of the Play and his other books include So You Want to Be An Actor?, Pru and Me and Our Great Canal Journeys. He was married to Prunella Scales.

Gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi died November 15 at the age of 82. He wrote Feel No Fear: The Power, Passion, and Politics of a Life in Gymnastics.

Archaeologist, Sumerologist, Assyriologist, and writer Muazzez İlmiye Çığ died November 17 aged 110. Her works include Kur'an Incil ve Tevrat'in Sumerdeki Kokeni (The Origins of the Koran, the Gospel and the Torah in Sumer), Sümerli Ludingirra (Ludingirra the Sumerian, a retrospective science-fiction), and Hititler ve Hattuşa : İştar'ın kaleminden (The Hittites and Hattuša, as Written by Ishtar).

Poet, critic, feminist, and teacher Sandra M. Gilbert died November 10 aged 87. She coauthored The madwoman in the attic : the woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination (1979) and No man's land : the place of the woman writer in the twentieth century (in two volumes, 1988-1989). Gilbert also wrote Death's door : modern dying and the ways we grieve (2006).

Poet, writer and translator of Bengali language and literature William Radice died November 10 aged 73. Radice's works include Myths and legends of India, Teach Yourself Bengali, and The translator's art : essays in honour of Betty Radice (his mother).

Travel guide entrepreneur Arthur Frommer died November 18 aged 95. His works include the original Europe on $5 a Day (first edition 1967), Frommer's $ a Day Guide: Europe, Arthur Frommer's New World of Travel (1995), and Ask Arthur Frommer & travel better, cheaper, smarter (2009).

Trinidadian-American novelist and professor Elizabeth Nunez died November 8 aged 80. Nunez's works include Prospero's daughter : a novel, the American Book Award-winning Bruised hibiscus : a novel, and the anthology Stories from blue latitudes : Caribbean women writers at home and abroad (edited with Jennifer Sparrow).

Labour politician Lord John Prescott, whose career included being a ship steward, a trade unionist, MP, Deputy Prime Minister, life peer and cameo TV roles, has died aged 86.

His memoir is called Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches.

He appeared as himself as a wedding guest in a TV sitcom, Gavin and Stacey. One of the major characters, Stacey's best friend Nessa, played by scriptwriter Ruth Jones, talks regularly about her past relationship with John Prescott.

Engineer, professor, and entrepreneur Marshall Brain (yes, his real name) died November 20 aged 63. Brain's works include How Stuff Works, The engineering book : from the catapult to the Curiosity Rover : 250 milestones in the history of engineering, and Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future.

Illustrator and comic book artist Bernadette Després died November 19 aged 83. Her works include the Tom-Tom et Nana comics for kids.

I hate that she’s going to miss Thanksgiving. The Alice from Alice’s Restaurant—Alice Brock died November 21 at the age of 83. Her books include How to Massage Your Cat, Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, and My Life as a Restaurant. 😢🦃Wherever she’s gone I’m sure it can’t be beat.

Barbara Taylor Bradford died on 24 November 2024 aged 91. She started as a journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post, a newspaper in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and was the author of A Woman of Substance, a number of sequels and lots of other novels, many family sagas about wealth and business.

>24 karenb: My whole family grew up on that comic strip... I loved it as a child!

Professor and preacher Tony Campolo died November 19 aged 89. Campolo's works include Adventures in missing the point : how the culture-controlled church neutered the Gospel, 20 hot potatoes Christians are afraid to touch, and Carpe diem : seize the day.

Community organizer and professor John L. McKnight died November 2 aged 92. McKnight's works include Building communities from the inside out : a path toward finding and mobilizing a community's assets, The abundant community: awakening the power of families and neighborhoods, and The careless society : community and its counterfeits.

Anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen died November 27 aged 62. Eriksen's works include Small places, large issues : an introduction to social and cultural anthropology, Tyranny of the moment : fast and slow time in the information age, and Ethnicity and nationalism : anthropological perspectives.

Food historian and typographer Gillian Riley died November 11 aged 90. Her works incude The Oxford companion to Italian food, Renaissance Recipes from the Painters and food series, and A feast for the eyes : evocative recipes and surprising tales inspired by paintings in the National Gallery.

Writer Linda E Bushyager died November 27 aged 77. She wrote the fantasy novels Master of Hawks and The spellstone of Shaltus.

Cartoonist and animator Peter Maddocks died November 20 aged 96. Maddocks's works include How to draw cartoons and The Family Ness: Elspeth and Angus Buy a Puppy.

Journalist and essayist Lance Morrow died November 29 aged 85. Morrow's works include Evil: an investigation, The best year of their lives : Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948, learning the secrets of power, and Mad genius : the odyssey, pursuit, and capture of the Unabomber suspect.

US televangelist Hal Lindsey died November 25 aged 95. His best known work is 1970's The Late Great Planet Earth.

Trial attorney turned novelis Mimi Latt died in November aged 84. Latt wrote Powers of attorney, Pursuit of justice, and Ultimate justice.

Medievalist, professor, and libray curator Edward Peters died November 9 aged 88. Peters's works include Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700 : a documentary history with Alan Charles Kors, The First Crusade : the chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials, and Inquisition.

Archaeologist and paleolinguist Colin Renfrew died November 24 aged 87. Renfrew's works include Archaeology : theories, methods, and practice with Paul Bahn, Archaeology and language : the puzzle of Indo-European origins, and Prehistory: The making of the human mind.

Lawyer and novelist Stanley Pottinger died November 27 aged 84. Pottinger's works include The fourth procedure, A slow burning, and The last Nazi.

Jeremy Seabrook died on 30 November 2024 aged 85. He wrote 40 books on social, environmental and political issues, including poverty at home and in the world. Titles include The No-Nonsense Guide to World Poverty and Myth of the Market: Promises and Illusions.

Scottish food writer and chef Catherine Brown died November 28 aged 83. Brown's works include Scottish Cookery, A year in a Scots kitchen : celebrating summer's end to worshipping its beginning, and Broths to bannocks: cooking in Scotland 1690 to the present day.

Journalist and teacher Jeremy Seabrook died November 30 aged 85. Seabrook's works include The no-nonsense guide to world poverty, Travels in the skin trade : tourism and the sex industry, and The song of the shirt : cheap clothes across continents and centuries.

Computer scientist George F. Coulouris died November 18 aged 87. Coulouris wrote the first compiler for CPL and the first visual editor for UNIX. Coulouris wrote the classic text Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design with his wife, Jean Dollimore.