Tom Stoppard , the playwright and Oscar -winning ' Shakespeare in Love ' screenwriter, has died at the age of 88 . Stoppard, who wrote for radio, film, theatre and television, was known as one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. Away from his successful career, Tom also had a remarkable personal life and family history.

Born as Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), he was the son of non-observant Jews. The Sträussler family fled to Singapore in the late 1930s.

After the Japanese invasion of Singapore, Tom's father stayed on and was tragically killed, but Stoppard’s mother and her two sons went to India to escape. There, she married a

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