Beryl Bainbridge, R. I. P.

Beryl Bainbridge, Novelist, Dies at 75 - NYTimes.com: "The acclaimed British novelist Beryl Bainbridge, an acute and acerbic chronicler of human relationships, has died at the age of 75.

Ed Wilson, of her literary agency Johnson and Alcock, says Bainbridge died in a London hospital early Friday. She had been suffering from cancer.

Bainbridge was born in the port city of Liverpool in northwest England in 1934, and the city's grit informed her books, which blended humor, tragedy and the absurd.

She published more than a dozen novels, including ''A Weekend With Claud,'' ''The Bottle Factory Outing'' and ''Injury Time.''"

Hat tip to Jeff (Grim Reaper) Meyerson.