As literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain during one of its most turbulent periods, Charles Osborne, who has died aged 89, will be remembered by many for his coruscatingly witty memoranda and public responses to criticism of his often controversial policies. But he was also an impressively protean writer, equally at home in biography, journalism, poetry, music, drama and literary criticism.
His writings included studies of the operas of Verdi (for which he had a particular penchant), Wagner, Strauss and Mozart, a biography of WH Auden, and a biographical companion to the works of Agatha Christie. He also had considerable success converting plays into novels, three by Christie (translated into many languages), Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest among them.
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