LONDON, Nov 7: British novelist John Fowles, author of ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ and ‘The Magus’, has died at the age of 79, his publisher said on Monday. “He died at the weekend. He had been ill for some time,” said a spokeswoman at his publishers, Jonathan Cape.

Fowles, a novelist for more than 40 years, won international acclaim with publication in 1969 of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a vivid Victorian pastiche that was later turned into a critically acclaimed film with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

Fowles worked as a teacher before turning to writing full-time. His first novel in 1963 was “The Collector” about a young butterfly collector who kidnaps a young woman.

Among his other successful books was the 1960s cult novel “The Magus,” a complex and disturbing tale set on a Greek island. —Reuters