Humphrey Carpenter

Mr Carpenter, who lived with his wife Mari Prichard in Farndon Road, north Oxford, revealed he had Parkinson's Disease in 2003.

The condition had been diagnosed two-and-a-half years before, but he chose to go public because friends and acquaintances had started to inquire about his health. He died on January 4 shortly after returning from holiday.

His wife said: "Although he was in the first stage of Parkinson's he was on good form -- it was totally sudden."

Humphrey Carpenter Mr Carpenter's career as a biographer began in 1977 with his life of JRR Tolkien. This was followed by works on the Inklings, Robert Runcie, the former Archibishop of Canterbury, composer Benjamin Britten, playwright Dennis Potter and comedian Spike Milligan.

Born in Oxford in 1946, Mr Carpenter's father was the Rt Rev Harry Carpenter, the Bishop of Oxford, and his mother Urith Monica Trevelyan. In 1973, he married Miss Prichard in Keble College chapel after meeting her at BBC Radio Oxford, where from 1970 to 1974 he presented Oxford AM.

He became a full-time writer in 1975 and in a 10-year period wrote on average a book a year, including the Mr Majeika children's books. Mr Carpenter also presented Night Waves on Radio 3, reviewed books for The Sunday Times, ran the Mushy Pea Theatre group for children in Oxford and founded the dance band Vile Bodies.

In August 2003, during an interview about his biography of Spike Milligan, Mr Carpenter told The Oxford Times that Parkinson's had left him unable to type and he was using a voice-recognition computer program.

Michele Topham, assistant to Felicity Bryan, Mr Carpenter's Oxford-based literary agent since the 1980s, said he had two books almost ready for publication: a history of publishers John Murray, and a completed Mr Majeika. She added: "He continued to work right up until the last. He tried not to let his condition get in the way of his life."

Prof John Kelly, Professor of English at St John's College, a friend of Mr Carpenter since 1976, said: "He will be missed terribly by people from all sorts of different walks of life."

Valentine Cunningham, Professor of English at Corpus Christi College, who met Mr Carpenter when they were undergraduates at Keble College, said his friend was "an extraordinarily amiable bloke" who loved gossip and scandal, as well as being a serious literary biographer.

Prof Cunningham, who played jazz with Mr Carpenter, added: "He was devoted to a scathing, scurrilous, sceptical view of the world, based in an enthusiasm for the low life of great people."

Mr Carpenter leaves his wife and two daughters, Clare and Kate.