Science, better diet, advanced medicines are all part of a process that in the modern age keep most of us going to a ripe old age.

In previous times some diseases could only be slowed and not defeated. There toil of relentless attack on our physical forms brought misery and decay.

Add to this that within our number some will self-destruct, demons will pursue their inner thoughts and life will be too painful to bear. Some may shuffle off the mortal coil for no discernible reason, but life will end early, they will not take up their three-score year and ten.

In this collection of short stories some of our most popular and well-known authors are grouped together with an unfortunate tag: dead at 46.

These authors are not run-of-the-mill or ten a penny; many are literary leviathans who left enduring works of literature and sadly may have left us many more had they lived. We will never know.

Death for these authors was usually due to many health issues but primarily:—

Oscar Wilde — Meningitis

George Gissing — General ill health left him unable to recover from a chill

H P Lovecraft — Cancer

Mary Webb — Unknown but she had been in increasingly bad health for some time

Perceval Gibbon — Cause of death unknown