Only Fools and Horses star and prize-winning novelist Kate Saunders dies aged 62
The actress is famed for playing a policewoman in a classic Only Fools episode
Only Fools and Horses star Kate Saunders has died aged 62.
Kate’s sister Louisa Saunders confirmed the news on Twitter on Monday, April 24.
She wrote: “My sister, who we lost last Friday. The warmest, bravest, most generous, and most brilliant woman I will ever know. Heaven knows how we will live without her.”
The actress, novelist, and journalist joined the National Theatre in 1987 and is famed for playing a police officer called Sandra in The Long Legs of the Law episode of Only Fools and Horses in 1982. She also starred in Angles (1978), ITV Playhouse (1979) A Family Affair (1979), and Just Good Friends (1984).
Kate, from London, was a prize-winning novelist and produced more than 20 novels for children and adults ranging in genre from kid’s novels, to historical romance and detective stories, reports The Guardian.
She was a columnist for the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Express, She, and Cosmopolitan. She also judged the 1990 Booker prize, and persuaded her fellow judges to choose AS Byatt’s Possession as the winner.
She also judged the 2007 Women’s prize in the year that it was won by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.
On Twitter, there has been an outpouring of tributes for Kate with publisher Faber Children’s writing: “We are extremely saddened by the death of our beloved author, Kate Saunders. Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time. Kate was a sensational author and a National Treasure. Brilliantly funny, gracious, compassionate, she will be greatly missed by us all.”
Only Fools and Horses HQ wrote: “We are sorry to learn of the passing of Kate Saunders, who played policewoman Sandra in the episode The Long Legs of the Law in 1982. In addition to her acting career, Kate was an award-winning novelist, journalist and critic. Our thoughts are with her family.”
Another person wrote: “Journalist Kate Saunders who was on Paul Merton,s team in the first-ever HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU in September 1990 has died at the age of 62.”
