Kate Saunders death: Only Fools and Horses actor dies aged 62

‘The warmest, bravest, most generous and most brilliant woman I will ever know’

Award-winning novelist and journalist Kate Saunders has died aged 62.

Saunders, who also appeared in BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, died on Friday (21 April), according to a post on Twitter shared by her sister Louisa.

The author won the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2014 for her book Five Children on the Western Front .

Elsewhere, she was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and appeared on numerous BBC arts programmes.

Saunders also appeared as a guest on the first ever episode of satirical panel show Have I Got News For You, alongside comedian Sandi Toksvig, in 1990.

Sharing a link to an obituary of Saunders, her sister Louisa 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.”

As well as Five Children, her novels included The Belfry Witches, The Marrying Game, Storm In The Citadel and The Prodigal Father – for which she won the Betty Trask Award in 1986.

Five Children was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2016, as was her novel The Land of Neverendings in 2019.

On Monday (24 April), the official account of Only Fools and Horses tweeted an online tribute to Saunders. In the sitcom, she played a love interest to Rodney Trotter, the character played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Costa Children’s Book Award Winner Kate Saunders arrives at the 2015 Costa Book Awards at Quaglino’s, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday January 27, 2015. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire (PA Archive)

She also wrote for various UK publications including The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Cosmopolitan.

Additional reporting by Agencies