Erich Segal

When I was looking ’some’ good book to read in my spare time, my friend recommended Erich Segal’s Love Story, and since the day I read it, it has been my favourite book. And this is so sad to know that my favourite author has no longer among us.

Love Story author Erich Segal has died from a heart attack at home in London aged 72, his daughter has said.

Segal was a classics professor at Yale University when he wrote the book, which became an Oscar-winning 1970 film starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw.

Francesca Segal said her father, who died on Sunday, had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years.

New York-born Segal also wrote the screenplay for the Beatles’ animated film Yellow Submarine.

Screenplay nomination

At his funeral in London on Tuesday, Ms Segal said during the eulogy: “That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last 30 years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was, a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity.

“He was the most dogged man any of us will ever know.”

Love Story, which had the tagline “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”, was nominated for seven Oscars – including Segal’s screenplay – and won one for best original score.

Segal, who was an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is survived by his wife Karen James and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20. (- via bbc.co.uk)

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