Author Margaret Thomson Davis, whose "ability to render the texture and manners of Scottish working class communities, as well as their sights and sounds, and to render privation simply and unsentimentally, meant that she was often likened to Catherine Cookson, a comparison she accepted modestly, but without comment," died June 14, the Herald Scotland reported. She was 90.
Thomson Davis "was utterly committed to prose fiction" ranging from romance to murder to historical fiction. Of her 20-plus novels, the best known is The Breadmakers, first published in 1972. "Her ability to represent ordinary life in Scotland was not merely a matter of research. Her second volume of autobiography was tellingly entitled Write From The Heart. She was able to catch the rub and tension of a struggling family because she had grown up in one," the Herald Scotland noted.
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Alan Rutsky, chief financial officer of Rizzoli International Publications, died on Tuesday. He was in the process of retirement when he became ill.
Rutsky joined Rizzoli in 2003 as CFO, and, among other things, oversaw the opening of the new location of the Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City. Earlier he was executive v-p and chief operating officer at Harry N. Abrams. Rizzoli said that Rutsky was "treasured by all members of Rizzoli staff for his wisdom, diplomacy, practicality, humor, and warmth."