Author Joanna Trollope has died aged 82, her family has said.

Trollope was one of the nation’s most widely read authors, having published more than 30 novels during a career that began in the 1970s.

Her novels include “Aga sagas” The Rector’s Wife, Marrying The Mistress and Daughters-in-Law.

In a statement, Trollope’s daughters Antonia and Louise said: “Our beloved and inspirational mother Joanna Trollope has died peacefully at her Oxfordshire home, on December 11, aged 82.”

Her literary agent James Gill said: “It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Joanna Trollope, one of our most cherished, acclaimed and widely enjoyed novelists.

“Joanna will be mourned by her children, grandchildren, family, her countless friends and – of course – her readers.”

Trollope was born in Gloucestershire in 1943. She won a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in the 1960s.

After graduating, she joined the Foreign Office before training as a teacher and then turning to writing full-time in 1980.

The author was best known for her novels set in rural middle England and centred around domestic life and relationships.

Her early historical romances were written under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey, before she turned to contemporary fiction.

Her work tackled a range of topics from affairs, blended families and adoption, to parenting and marital breakdown.

Trollope also took part in The Austen Project, which saw six of Jane Austen’s novels retold by contemporary writers.

She wrote the first book in the series, Sense & Sensibility, published in 2013.

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In 1996, Trollope was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature and later made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019.

She won the Romantic Novel of the Year in 1980 for the book Parson Harding’s Daughter and in 2010 was given a lifetime achievement award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) for her services to romance.

She went on to chair a number of award ceremonies, including the Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Prize, as well as the BBC National Short Story Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Glaswegian comic actor and impressionist Stanley Baxter has died at the age of 99.

Baxter was bold enough to mimic the Pope and even the Queen and sent up his native city with comic routines based on Glaswegian patois.

The Scot received several awards during his career, including a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards and two TV tribute programmes.

His friend and biographer Brian Beacom said the TV star died on Thursday in a north London care home for entertainment figures.

He had lived in the home, Denville Hall, since late 2023 and was a few months away from celebrating his 100th birthday.

Baxter’s TV shows, in which he often appeared grotesquely in drag, attracted huge audiences and marked him out as one of the funniest, as well as sometimes one of the most controversial, comics of his generation.

Baxter was also popular on the Scottish pantomime circuit, until his retirement in 1991.

Although he did emerge occasionally and briefly from retirement, he largely disappeared from show business and from the public eye.

Baxter was married for 46 years. His wife, Moira died in 1997.

In 2020, he released a co-written biography, The Real Stanley Baxter, which revealed he was gay and had told his wife before they married.

Baxter was born on 24 May, 1926 and started his career as a child actor in the Scottish edition of BBC’s Children’s Hour.

During his National Service, he developed his skills in the Combined Services Entertainment Unit.

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He then returned to Glasgow, and later to London, where he launched a glittering career in television.

He made his debut in the BBC’s Shop Window in 1952, followed by several guest appearances in variety shows.

But it was on the satirical BBC show On The Bright Side (1959) that he was handed his major TV break.

The Stanley Baxter Show (1963-1971) cemented his reputation and propelled him to television stardom.

Baxter also starred in various TV spectaculars, including Stanley Baxter’s Christmas Box.

Among his most successful routines was Parliamo Glasgow, which was conceived as being written by a fictitious scholar visiting the city.

The sketch took the Glasgow patois and developed it to comic effect, such as “sanoffy cold day” for “It’s an awfully cold day”.

After his retirement, he appeared in 2004 in a series of three half-hour sitcoms for BBC Radio 4, entitled Stanley Baxter and Friends.

He also lent his voice to the animated children’s film Arabian Knight and the television series Meeow.

Baxter appeared in a number of films, including Very Important Person (1961), in which he played a fiercely nationalistic Scot.

Other film appearances included Geordie (1955), The Fast Lady (1962) and And Father Came Too! (1963).

Baxter also gained an Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television Award from Bafta Scotland in a digital ceremony in 2020.

OpenAI has signed its first major licensing deal to bring well-known characters to life on its Sora video generation tool.

The company said the agreement with Walt Disney was part of a push to ensure the rights of creators in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) space amid growing concerns over copyright, fakes and misinformation.

It forms part of a $1bn Disney investment in OpenAI, that will see the entertainment firm roll out ChatGPT to its staff and grow its AI capabilities.

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The initial three-year licensing deal will allow Sora users to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.

These include Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker.

Sora allows people to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts.

Disney and OpenAI said they were committed to responsible use of AI amid the backlash from critics who have pointed to widespread misuse of generative AI in the social media space – a practice known as AI slop.

Some have depicted fake messages from celebrities and even used the dead.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society, respect the importance of creativity, and help works reach vast new audiences.

His counterpart at Disney, Bob Iger, added that the partnership would “extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works”.

As part of the deal, some user-generated Sora videos will be made available on the Disney+ streaming service.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said of the tie-up: “It’s a win-win situation for Disney and OpenAI. Disney gets to deploy its beloved brands in the world of AI while keeping control of the intellectual property.

“Fans can use Disney characters to make videos and take social media content to another level. That could drive significant traffic to OpenAI’s Sora social media platform, turning a relatively unknown entity into a household name in a flash.

“As part owner of the business, Disney will be able to use the equity stake in OpenAI to ensure its characters are used in a controlled environment.

“It’s a significant step forward for the concept of fan fiction”, he concluded.