Storyteller touched by true genius

SIR TOM Stoppard was one of the UK's best-known playwrights, who picked up an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love.

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King Charles called him "a dear friend who wore his genius lightly", adding in a tribute to him: "Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else."

The line is from Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, one of Stoppard's most notable stage works. The Czech and English playwright and screenwriter wrote extensively for film, radio, stage and television, finding prominence with his plays.

His work covered the themes of human rights, censorship and political freedom. He was a playwright of the National Theatre and regarded as one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation, often compared to William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw.