The vivid prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez described a world as exotic as a Latin American carnival. His backdrop was the poverty-stricken, and often violent world of his Colombian home where democracy never really found roots. His stories wove imaginary magical elements into real life and were often set in a fictional village called Macondo.

A left-winger by conviction he was not slow to criticise the Colombian government and spent a great part of his life in exile. Continue reading the main story "Start Quote There is not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality'

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Marquez was born in the town of Aracataca, Colombia on 6 March 1928 although his father, a pharmacist, always insisted it was 1927. His parents moved away shortly after he was born and the young Marquez was left in the care of his maternal grandparents.

Read BBC's obituary of Gabriel Garcia Marquez