Alastair Niven obituary

Scholar and literary administrator who nurtured the talent of many writers from Africa, Asia and the Commonwealth

Clive Wilmer obituary

Poet and scholar who promoted the work of John Ruskin and edited a selection of Thom Gunn’s essays

Author of the Crongton novels whose stories of inner-city life give a realistic portrait of growing up in contemporary Britain

Other lives: Author, poet and academic whose books often fused history with verse

Other lives: Medieval historian at Sheffield and Newcastle universities who wrote influential books on heresy and the roots of intolerance

Norwegian novelist who sustained a reputation as both seer and comrade for readers and writers for half a century

Other lives: Cricket historian who wrote Seven Summers, an account of Surrey’s seven consecutive county championship triumphs

Other lives: Son of the actor Rex Harrison who became a successful playwright and author

Literary editor and chief book reviewer of the Times who later joined the Observer as its theatre critic

Other lives: English lecturer who was a prolific author and editor of books on writers and their literature

Historian and anti-racism campaigner who wrote several groundbreaking books about Black British history

Other lives: Academic expert on downmarket illustrated books, prints and ephemera of Georgian and Victorian eras

Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum who was also a bestselling science writer and accomplished TV presenter

Musician, actor and poet who drew on cultural influences from reggae to European poetry in his Welsh-language work

Bestselling crime writer whose work drew on his own experience as an LAPD detective