The American writer, William Styron, has died of pneumonia in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, aged 81.
His novels included Sophie's Choice, the story of a Holocaust survivor from Poland, which was filmed with Meryl Streep and also became an opera.

He also wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner, which won him a Pulitzer prize.

Styron's other works included a best-selling memoir, Darkness Visible, which told of his battle with near-suicidal depression.

Styron had been in bad health for some time and had published no full-length novels for more than 25 years.