Author John Fowles dead

BRITISH novelist John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Magus, has died aged 79, his publisher said overnight.

"He died at the weekend. He had been ill for some time," said a spokeswoman at his publishers, Jonathan Cape.

Fowles, a novelist for more than 40 years, won international acclaim with publication in 1969 of The French Lieutenant's Woman, a vivid Victorian pastiche that was later turned into a critically acclaimed film with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

Fowles worked as a teacher before turning to writing full-time.

His first novel in 1963 was The Collector about a young butterfly collector who kidnaps a young woman.

Among his other successful books was the 1960s cult novel The Magus, a complex and disturbing tale set on a Greek island.