Playwright Simon Gray dies, aged 71

5:47am Friday 8th August 2008

Playwright Simon Gray has died at the age of 71, it has been announced.

Gray was a prolific playwright but in recent years attracted a new fan base with his highly candid memoirs.

The writer also penned five novels, including Little Portia, and Breaking Hearts.

Gray's memoirs included The Smoking Diaries and, most recently, The Last Cigarette, in which smoking was a constant theme. The Last Cigarette was in the process of being cast for the London stage.

Gray wrote dozens of plays for TV and radio and his creations enjoyed success on Broadway.

Michael Palin recently made a return to acting to play teacher Quartermaine in a Radio 4 revival of one of Gray's best known plays, Quartermaine's Terms (1981), about the lives of the staff of a school in the '60s.

His stage plays also include Melon (1987), Butley (1971), and Otherwise Engaged (1975).

Gray studied at Westminster School in London, where he was a keen cricketer and sportsman, and then attended Cambridge.

The writer, who had suffered from aneurysms and prostate cancer and began smoking at the age of seven, once said: "I'm 71 and I have cancer, and I don't really want to spend the time I have left wrestling with smoking."

Gray, who lived in London and was born in Hayling Island, gave up alcohol after once drinking four bottles of champagne a day.