TINNISWOOD, Peter 1936-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 21, 1936, in Liverpool, England; died of cancer January 9, 2003, in London, England. Novelist, television and radio writer, playwright, and journalist. Tinniswood wrote popular comedies for British television and radio programs. One of his best-known was the television series I Didn't Know You Cared, which was aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation for four years in the 1970s and earned the writer a Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize from the Royal Society of Literature. He also contributed to the satirical comedy series That Was the Week that Was and wrote material for media personalities such as internationally recognized broadcaster David Frost. Tinniswood worked as a journalist until he was able to support himself through fiction and comedy. His first novel was A Touch of Daniel, which introduces the Brandon family eventually made famous by I Didn't Know You Cared. Tinniswood also wrote popular radio pieces such as Tales from a Long Room, a series of cricket monologues by a character known as "the brigadier"; these stories were later published in at least eight collections. His radio play The Village Fete, which introduces a poacher named Winston Hayballs, earned the author a Giles Cooper award in 1987. Tinniswood attempted several stage plays, but success in the limelight eluded him until his later years. The 2000 play Croak, Croak, Croak and the 2002 piece The Last Obit, the latter which premiered on the radio prior to its West End opening, were both based on the vicissitudes of aging and failing health, elements of what Tinniswood once described to CA as the "tragi-comic nature" of life.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Novelists, 7th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2003, p. B17.

Times (London, England), January 11, 2003, p. 40.

Washington Post, January 11, 2003, p. B7.