Mr Fowles was born in 1926 in the Essex suburb of Leigh-on-Sea, the son of a cigarmaker and tobacconist.

ECONOMIST: John Fowles

In March, Andrew Jelley, father of baby Mylo, called 999 from Sutton on Sea after he found his son lying face down in a pond, apparently not breathing.

BBC: 999 worker helps save Lincolnshire baby's life

Yet here, too, personal and political interact: Herzen must struggle to rescue his ideals from the wreckage of events in the same year as an accident at sea drowns his wife and son.

ECONOMIST: Tom Stoppard: Coming ashore | The

Next year he and his son will launch a similar maritime assault on the Baltic Sea routes that link Helsinki and Stockholm with Germany.

FORBES: Athens At The Crossroads

Rachel McCollum and Darren Cecil were on holiday from Kettering when their son, Dylan, was swept off the jetty at Burnham-on-Sea in August.

BBC: Dylan Cecil sea fall inquest: Parents absolved of blame

My son informs me from Matara, Sri Lanka, that there was a great hissing sound from the sea around 10 a.m. and the sea seemed to be caving in.

CNN: Tsunami tragedy: Your e-mails