South African Nobel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer has
died in Johannesburg aged 90.
The writer, who was one of the literary world's most
powerful voices against apartheid - died at her home after a short illness, her
family said.
She wrote more than 30 books, including the novels My Son's
Story, Burger's Daughter and July's People.
She jointly won 1974's Booker Prize for The Conservationist
and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.
'She cared most deeply'
The Nobel committee said at the time it was honouring
Gordimer for her "magnificent epic writing" which had been "of
very great benefit to humanity".
The daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish watchmaker, she began
writing from an early age. Gordimer published her first story - Come Again
Tomorrow - in a Johannesburg magazine at just 15.
Her works comprised both novels and short stories where the
consequences of apartheid, exile and alienation were the major themes.
Gordimer's family said she "cared most deeply about
South Africa, its culture, its people, and its ongoing struggle to realise its
new democracy".
Committed to fighting apartheid, the author was a leading
member of the African National Congress (ANC) and fought for the release of
Nelson Mandela.
Nadine Gordimer was interviewed by the BBC in 2011
They went on to become firm friends and she edited Mandela's
famous I Am Prepared To Die speech, which he gave as a defendant during his
1962 trial.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation paid tribute to Gordimer, saying
it was "deeply saddened at the loss of South Africa's grande dame of
literature".
"We have lost a great writer, a patriot and strong
voice for equality and democracy in the world," it added.
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