Paul Quarrington, prolific and talented as an author, musician and screenwriter died from lung cancer on 21 January, 2010, surrounded by loving family and friends.

Mr Quarrington was born in Toronto on 22 July, 1953. He loved music from childhood and played guitar, clarinet, squeeze box, bass, harp, and piano.

One of his most famous books was Whale Music - reportedly based loosely on the life of reclusive Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It won the Governor General's Award for Fiction and was one of several of his novels adapted as a feature film.

Other books include The Ravine, Galveston and King Leary, which won the Stephen Leacock Medal and the 2008 Canada Reads competition.

He won a Genie award for his screenplay Perfectly Normal, starring Robbie Coltrane, and was nominated for his work on the hit TV series Due South.

Tributes poured in following the announcement of his death.

Singer/songwriter Dan Hill, said: "Paul was one of the most inspiring, courageous, and creative human beings I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Everything I learned about playing guitar I learned from watching Paul slide his hands up and down the fretboard when I was 15 and he was 16. The high point of my youth was being a singer-songwriter duo with Paul, called Quarrington Hill. He was also the funniest man I’ve ever known: a character’s character."