Britain: Travel writer and broadcaster Pete McCarthy has died of cancer aged 51. McCarthy was diagnosed with the disease eight months ago and died on Wednesday at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton, his spokesman said. The humorist, who lived in East Sussex, leaves a wife and three children.
Author of the best-selling book McCarthy's Bar and its follow-up The Road to McCarthy, he also presented the Channel 4 series Travelog and hosted Radio 4 panel show X Marks The Spot.
Born in Warrington to an Irish mother and English father, McCarthy's books explored his Irish heritage. In McCarthy's Bar, he journeyed from Cork to Donegal, obeying one rule: never pass a bar that has your name on it. The book sold nearly a million copies and won him the newcomer of the year prize at the British Book Awards in 2002. The Road to McCarthy took him on a pilgrimage across four continents in search of far-flung Irish connections.
McCarthy's friend and tour manager, Mr Adrian Mealing, said: "Pete was thrilled and delighted with the worldwide reaction to his books . . . which endeared him to several generations around the globe who were either Irish, part Irish or who embraced the Celtic alternative to the Anglo-Saxon rule book." - (PA)