Sir John Mortimer, QC: April 21, 1923- January 16, 2009

Creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, "his large and sometimes rumpled figure, like that of his Rumpole character, was instantly recognisable; he exuded a universal bonhomie and revelled in a party-going social life even when conducted from the confines of a wheelchair."

Joan Bright Astley: September 27, 1910 - December 24, 2008

"... in April 1939, she received a mysterious message instructing her to go to St James’s Park underground station on a certain day wearing a pink carnation. There she was met by a woman who led her to an anonymous office where she signed the Official Secrets Act and was assigned to work in the Military Intelligence directorate of the War Office."

Joan Bright Astley worked with Churchill's wartime cabinet during World War II.

Emmie Yelding: August 14, 1919 - November 26, 2008,

A number of famous people have passed away recently, and the papers are full of obituaries for Harold Pinter and Eartha Kitt, among others. But I like my Sunday obituaries quirky, and so I give you Emmie Yelding, circus performer and zoo owner.

Tony Hoare: February 4, 1938 - October 2, 2008

Tony Hoare was a bank robber turned screenwriter, who died at 70.

"... on leaving school he went to London in search of excitement. He found it as the member of a gang of bank robbers. They were never very successful. After a job in Warrington they repaired to a nearby pub but their southern accents immediately gave them away and they were arrested. Although a terrible driver, Hoare was the getaway man. He could reflect that he made far more money writing about crime for television than from his own crimes."

Thomas Felix Rudolf Gerhard Braun: August 30, 1935 - September 24, 2008

An Oxford don in the 19th century model:

"He had almost total recall of the text of Herodotus and of many of the fragmentary Greek historians whose works are collected in Jacoby’s Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. ... He was profoundly knowledgeable across an extraordinary range of subjects including the history of the Jews (in almost all periods), the migrations of the Slav peoples, physical geography, and German literature, to name but a few. ... Although his first language was German, he spoke English perfectly and knew Latin and Greek to a degree that few living people now do. His knowledge of other European languages included French, Italian and Modern Greek. He always taught himself the rudiments of the languages of the countries he visited and he enriched his scholarship with a knowledge of Hebrew, Persian and, to a lesser extent, even Chinese."

Lt.Col. Malalai Kakar, died September 28, 2008

Who even knew there were women police officers in Afghanistan?

"Known simply as Malalai in Kandahar, Kakar achieved legendary status in the province after killing three assassins in a shoot-out. ... Kakar did not exploit her femininity. She presented herself as a typical, tough-talking, swearing officer and did not hesitate to dispense instant justice. On one occasion she beat a man who she discovered had been keeping his wife in chains in his basement. 'I’m very famous as a dangerous person in Kandahar,' Kakar once said. 'People fear me. If I go near the shops, they take their stuff and leave.'"

She was, as you can probably guess, murdered by the Taliban.

Prince Michael Andreevich Romanov: July 15, 1920-September 22, 2008

I'm starting a new "meme" here today: each Sunday I'm going to give you one of the fabulous obituaries from the British press. If you've never read a British obit, you are truly missing out. The British papers seek out the most interesting people and write their obituaries in such a way that they become so much more than just a death notice. Many of these pieces are lyrical, humorous, inspiring - these are people you dearly wish you'd known.

So, for the first:

"Prince Michael developed a life-long passion for the sunshine and Sydney’s beaches. He found employment easily and in a number of fields. He was a Qantas mechanic for sea planes in Rose Bay, Sydney. He worked with wood, metal, jewellery and fabric and eventually established his own business as a painter-decorator. He kept his royal identity to himself. His Australian workmates called him “Mike”. "

A lost-lost Russian prince, hanging out on a beach in Sydney: what more of a story do you want on a Sunday afternoon?