Carla Lane

British short story and sitcom writer for television and radio. Her writing was largely, but not exclusively, based around her hometown of Liverpool, mixing comedy and pathos in equal measure. In 1989, she was awarded the OBE for her contribution to TV, but chose to return the award in 2002, in protest against animal cruelty. A strong advocate of animal welfare, she established, along with her friends Linda McCartney and Rita Tushingham, the Animal Line trust in 1990, and would later run her own animal sanctuary in West Sussex. Having spent much of her life in the south of England, she moved back to Liverpool in 2009, and died at the Stapley Nursing Home in 2016. Born: 5th August 1928, in West Derby, Liverpool, England. Died: 31st May 2016, in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. [natural causes, aged 87]