My friend Susan Stokes just sent me this link - something especially sad about dying on New Year's Day:
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/agatha-raisin-creator-m-c-beaton-dies-83-1145666"Prolific writer M C Beaton, creator of the much-loved Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth crime series, has died.
Beaton passed away on 30th December aged 83, after a short illness, her publisher Little, Brown said.
Success came to her later in life but she made up for lost time - since 2011 she had been the most borrowed UK adult author in British libraries and her M C Beaton titles have sold in excess of 21 million copies worldwide," L, B said in a statement. "However, she hated being referred to as a ‘cosy’ writer, saying that if anyone called her books cosy she’d give them a Glasgow Kiss. She always saw herself more as an entertainer than author."
M C Beaton's editor Krystyna Green commented: "I’m going to miss her dreadfully as after 23 years I’d grown from being in awe of her, to thinking she was absolutely wonderful - and very kind under her rather fierce exterior. She was forthright and uncompromising and never afraid to express a view, no matter how unfashionable. She was funny, wise, and truly an inspiring, utterly unique individual. This is just such a sad end to the year."