Born on 16 September 1938 to chartered accountant Henry Jules Benedictus and Kathleen Constance (née Ricardo). He was educated at
Eton College,
Balliol College, Oxford, and the
University of Iowa. Benedictus previously wrote and produced audio readings of the
Pooh stories, with
Judi Dench as
Kanga and
Geoffrey Palmer as
Eeyore. He sent the trustees of the
A. A. Milne estate two sample stories of his sequel, and it took more than eight years for them to approve the project. However,
Publishers Weekly was cool on the book, describing it as "largely forgettable" and as missing "the charm of the first book". Benedictus commented on his work in 1985, "Given peace of mind, financial independence, and a modicum of luck, I may produce a novel to be proud of one day." In March, 2014, he moved to
Hove, a resort on the south coast of England, to be close to his extending family. He has four children,
Jolyon Maugham KC, a barrister, Leo a journalist and novelist (
The Afterparty, his first novel, was published by Jonathan Cape), Chloe a psychodynamic psychotherapist, and Jessica Campbell, a theatre producer. Benedictus published an
autobiography,
Dropping Names, in 2005. According to an interview Benedictus gave to the Israeli newspaper
Yediot Aharonot in 2009, he said that a cousin had done research into his surname and found out that it was actually "
Baruch" (ברוך - having the same meaning as "Benedictus" in
Hebrew), as well as research into how his ancestors emigrated to Britain, which revealed that they have
Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Benedictus died suddenly on 4 October 2023, at the age of 85. ==Bibliography==