Nelle Harper Lee who died yesterday aged 89 is perhaps proof of the adage that everyone has one book in them. But in the case of Lee, what a book!
'To Kill a Mockingbird' was published in 1960 and the following year won the Pulitzer Prize. Since than, Lee has been bestowed with numerous awards yet she never published another thing. The more recently released prequel 'Go Set a Watchman' has even been revealed to be an early draft of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
Still if you are only going to leave one work behind, then it might as well be something as majestic as 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. It's a damn sight more than most of us achieve.
Far more prolific was the Italian writer Umberto Eco who also passed away yesterday aged 84. I actually came to his work via the film of his groundbreaking 1980 novel, 'The Name of the Rose'. As is usually the case, I found the book to be far better than the film. I then became immersed in the labyrinthine 'Foucault's Pendulum' which, at the time I read it, appealed to my own interest in conspiracy theories and esoteric organisations such as the the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians and the Cathars. It was light years ahead of Dan Brown's cheesy but far more successful 'The Da Vinci Code', but isn't that usually the way?
Sadly two vastly different but equally brilliant writers have now left us. But what a legacy they leave for us to enjoy.
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