Obituary: John Fowles

* John Fowles, author. Died age 79.

John Fowles, whose complex and pioneering novels such as The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman enthralled a generation before slipping spectacularly out of fashion, has died aged 79.

The reclusive author died at his home overlooking the sea in Lyme Regis in Dorset, which he shared with his second wife. He had been ill for several years after a stroke in 1988, and later developed heart problems.

His publisher, Dan Franklin, of Jonathan Cape, said Fowles had been "incredibly important" in shaking up the literary world in the 1960s and '70s.

"When The French Lieutenant's Woman came out it was a bombshell because it had this incredible double ending.

"It was the first example of post-modern playfulness anyone had seen, and opened up new possibilities."

But although Fowles' writing career spanned 40 years - touching on such diverse genres as fantasy, science fiction and historical drama - his voice was always distinctive and unstintingly intellectual. And while his books, particularly the first three of his seven novels, were successful and financially rewarding, his legacy has proved somewhat uncertain.

John Carey, former Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and Booker Prize chairman, said Fowles was at his best when he kept it simple.

"He wanted to be the standard-bearer for post-modernism and despised conventionality and thought of himself as a writer who was breaking new ground. He may have tried to do that too hard. The Collector, which is not very experimental in its techniques, is perhaps his best work."

Ambiguity was one of Fowles' defining themes. He often melded fantasy with meticulously researched historical detail, mixing up the narrative viewpoints and time settings.

- INDEPENDENT