The author Leslie Thomas, best known for his comic novel The Virgin Soldiers, has died aged 83.
Thomas, born in Newport, south Wales, was brought up in a Barnardo's home from age 12, and was a Fleet Street reporter before he began novel writing.
In 2004 he was appointed an OBE for services to literature having sold millions of books worldwide.
He died at his home near Salisbury in Wiltshire on Tuesday after a lengthy illness.
He leaves his wife, four children and four grandchildren.
The Virgin Soldiers, inspired by Thomas' national service in Malaya, tells the story of a group of British soldiers based in the Far East.
The success of the novel - and two subsequent feature films - allowed Thomas to become a full-time writer.
He wrote more than 30 novels including Tropic of Ruislip and Dangerous Davies, The Last Detective, both of which were adapted for television.
Thomas's father, a sailor, died when he was a boy but he used his experiences of growing up in an orphanage to write his 1964 first novel, This Time Next Week.
No more Virgin Soldiers
No more Virgin Soldiers
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”