I saw in Monday’s Guardian the obituary of writer Dan Simmons. His work ranged over, horror, SF and thrillers and even ventured into historical fiction.
It was as an SF writer that I knew of him but I did watch the TV adaptation of his novel The Terror based on the ill-fated Franklin Expedition some years ago now. I posted a photograph of a memorial to two members of the Expedition here.
Looking at my records I see I have read two of Simmon’s novels, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, (though the obit linked to above says they were originally intended as one novel) and I have had two others (Ilium and Olympos) on my tbr pile for many years. The reason I haven’t got round to reading them yet is that they resemble doorstops, which I find a bit off-putting.
Daniel Joseph (Dan) Simmons:- 4/4/1948 – 21/2/2026. So it goes.
This is unseasonal I know but I’ve already featured the group’s two biggest UK hits, here and here. Taken from Phil Spector’s Christmas Album – actually named A Christmas Gift to You from Philles Records and the less said about Spector the better – it’s also one of The Ronettes better known songs and was their third biggest, no 15 in 1963.
The Ronettes: Sleigh Ride
Nedra Yvonne Talley (Ross): 27/1/1946 – 26/4/2026. So it goes.
Dave Mason, co-founder of the band Traffic, has died.
His career with Traffic was by no means smooth (and he later went on to play with various luminaries) but he wrote and sang their biggest UK hit, a No 2 in 1967.
The band’s first hit was the theme from the TV Series Harry’s Game, set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was doubly notable to be the first song sung in Irish to reach the UK top ten.
Clannad: Theme From Harry’s Game
Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin (Moya Brennan): 4/8/1952 – 13/4/2026
I have just seen from various sources that SF writer Ian Watson has died. I’m so sad to hear about this.
I knew he had been ill recently but had been under the impression he was recovering.
I have thirty of his books on my shelves, the most recent of which was The Chinese Time Machine which I reviewed for ParSec in 2023.
The first time I met him was when I attended the signing event for my first short story publication, The Face of the Waters, in New Worlds 2 way back in 1992.
He was a gentleman and had a particularly sharp wit.
The once prolific writer Len Deighton – whose surname I share (apart from its pronunciation: he rhymed it with Dayton, my family rhymes it with Brighton) – has died: at 97, a good innings by any standard.
Back in my youth I was a keen reader of his spy fiction – he and John Le Carré were the two preeminent spy writers of the time – but it was his Bernard Samson stories, the Game, Set and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker and Faith, Hope and Charity trilogies and their prequel, Winter, which I consumed most avidly.
Then there were his forays into Altered History, SS-GB and XPD, which I greatly enjoyed.
His interest in the Second World War was explored further in the novels Bomber and Goodbye Mickey Mouse, both excellent, before he embarked on History proper with the books Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain; Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk; the lavishly photographically illustrated Battle of Britain, an interest consummated by the much later review of that war in its entirety in Blood Tears and Folly.
Of these latter I only read one during my blogging years.
Leonard Cyril (Len) Deighton: 18/2/1929 – 15/3/2026. So it goes.
He was one of the most distinctive pop acts of the late 1950s and early 1960s before the advent of The Beatles overturned everything.
His many songwriting credits include Stupid Cupid, a 1958 hit for Connie Francis, and Love Will Keep Us Together (Captain and Tenille, 1975.) (Is This the Way to) Amarillo (1971) eventually became a big hit for Tony Christie – aided by Peter Kay’s video – in 2005.
Sedaka’s own hits include Calendar Girl, Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.
He kind of reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s with a more adult-oriented approach.
Here’s a live performance from 1975.
Neil Sedaka: Laughter in the Rain
This one was a hit for The Carpenters but this is a Sedaka performance-
Neil Sedaka: Solitaire
Though he had an earlier hit with I Go Ape this was the song which really announced him in the UK in 1959.
