Obituary: Manuel Vazquez Montalban

Catalan writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban, 64, who died in Bangkok from a suspected heart attack on his way home from a tour of Australia and New Zealand, was an intellectual bon vivant whose fictional detective Pepe Carvalho won him widespread appeal.

Happy to write on anything from politics to food to football, his love of gourmet pleasures moved him to portray wining and dining as more than simple "landscape" background to a rollercoaster story.