Birthdays

Lord Acton, writer, 51; Mr Paul Anka, composer and singer, 51; Mr Peter Bogdanovich, film director, 53; Mr Peter Bottomley MP, 48; Miss Kate Bush, singer and songwriter, 34; Miss Teresa Cahill, opera singer, 48; Sir Edmund Compton, former Ombudsman, 86; Earl Cowley, bank director, 58; Mr Meredith Davies, conductor, 70; Miss Frances de la Tour, actress, 48; Sir Anthony Ewbank, High Court judge, 67; Mr Donald Fraser, artist, 63; The Earl of Glasgow (Patrick Boyle), television producer and director, 53; Professor Ian Alistair Gordon, emeritus professor of English Language and Literature, 84; Miss Harriet Harman MP, 42; Mr Richard Johnson, actor and producer, 65; Lord Killanin, author, film producer and Olympics honorary life president, 78; Miss Wyn Knowles, former editor, BBC Woman's Hour, 69; Lord McCarthy, industrial relations consultant, 67; Professor Laurence Martin, director, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 64; Harold Mason, literary critic, 81; Professor Anthony Mellows, Solictor of the Supreme Court, 56; Mr Tim Munton, cricketer, 27; Professor Cyril Northcote Parkinson, inventor of 'Parkinson's Law', 83; Mr Peter Plouviez, former general secretary, Equity, 61; Sir Richard Powell, former senior civil servant, 83; Mrs Anne Ridler, author, 80; Sir Patrick Russell, a Lord Justice of Appeal, 66; Sir Kerry St Johnston, chairman, Wilrig AS, Norway, 61; Sir Clive Sinclair, chairman, Sinclair Research Ltd, 52; Mr Stan Stennett, actor, 65; Mr Daley Thompson, athlete, 34; Sir Mathew Thorpe, High Court judge, 54; Mr Christopher Warren-Green, violinist, 37; Dame Marjorie Williamson, former principal, Royal Holloway College, 79; Vice-Adml Sir Anthony Woodhead, deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, 53.