'As fragile as a Russian ballerina,' the French newspaper Lib&;#233;ration once wrote, 'at the slightest chill, it catches a cold.' After 27 years of transatlantic supersonic flight, Concorde was grounded.

With his motto of 'Always present, never there', Denis Thatcher, 88, was no longer there after succumbing to a short illness in June. He had undergone heart surgery in January. 'He was a fund of shrewd advice and penetrating comment,' wrote his wife in her autobiography. 'And he very sensibly saved these for me rather than the outside world.'

Diana (Mitford) Mosley, wife of Oswald Mosley, who was described at various points as 'charming', 'witty', 'intelligent', 'a fascist' and 'an anti-semite', died in August, aged 93.

Described in his obituary as a 'pillar of moral rectitude standing up for decency and tolerance', actor Eldred Gregory Peck died aged 87 in June. Hume Cronyn, the long-standing husband and acting partner of Jessica Tandy, called it a day at 91. Fifty films, 12 Oscar nominations and four awards could only hint at the charm and vulnerability Katharine Hepburn showed onscreen. After 96 years of active New England life, she died in June. 'I'm so old they've cancelled my blood type,' said Bob Hope, who reached 100 before expiring. After a career that started with an appearance on the stage in Morecambe in 1911, aged two months, Thora Hird bowed out in March. The hard-faced star of Death Wish, Charles Bronson, died at 81. The young Laura Sadler, who played Sandy from Holby City, died at 22 after falling from a second-floor balcony in west London.

With his deep tones that became synonymous with dim lights and passion, Barry White redefined the makeout song before making his final move at 58. Always committed to civil rights, Eunice Wayman, better known as Nina Simone, died at 70 -60 years after she gave her first piano recital, in which her parents were moved from the front row because they were black.

After battling drug addiction, singer Elliott Smith, 34, stabbed himself in his apartment, ending a promising solo career. Robert Palmer was felled by a heart attack at 54. Maurice Gibb took a piece of disco history with him when he died in January at the age of 53. Johnny Cash, the man in black and the fiercest outlaw that country music has ever known, who sang to the world he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, passed away four months after his wife, June Carter Cash. Singer Nick Cave gave the best summary of his passing: 'He had such a wealth of experience in his voice, heaven and hell, and no one could touch him.'

In February, Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, died after a bout of lung disease. Named after Dolly Parton, she was 6, half the age most sheep might expect to live. Her premature ageing raised questions about the hidden snares of cloning. The nutritionist Robert C Atkins, 72, whose low-carb, high-protein diet was labelled 'potentially dangerous', died after falling on an even more dangerous icy pavement. It was also farewell to Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu, 90, the ANC veteran who spent more than 25 years in prison in apartheid South Africa; the microbiologist Dr David Kelly, 59, who committed suicide after being revealed as the mole for a controversial BBC report; Hugo Young, eloquent Guardian journalist and chairman of the Scott Trust, who died at 64. Helene Bertha Amelia 'Leni' Riefenstahl, the photographer and film-maker who found aesthetic beauty in both the Nuremberg rally and the Nuba tribe of southern Sudan.

He 'reads the world as closely as he reads books', said Salman Rushdie of Edward Said, who died of leukaemia at 67. There was author Carol Shields, 68, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Stone Diaries, who demonstrated with each novel how the prosaic could be transformed into the extraordinary.

Weighing less than 2lb at birth, and never breaking 5ft, Willie Shoemaker became one of the world's most successful jockeys. His trademark: gentleness with the animals and rare use of the whip. He died age 72.

t was also farewell to cartoonist and inventor Jay Morton, who brought about the 'pop-top' aluminium can and was the originator of the tagline: 'Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!'; Patrick Dalzel-Job, 90, never showed a fondness for Martinis and remained with one woman his whole life. Nevertheless, thanks to his wartime exploits as a spy he became a model for James Bond. Born Terence Nelhams, the singer known as Adam Faith died at 62. Uganda's tallest man passed away at 43, but unfortunately for mourners of the 8ft 9in John Apollo Ofwono, the coffin could not be lowered as the grave was too small. John J Geoghan, 68, the former Boston priest convicted of molestation, was murdered by a fellow inmate in August.

Saddam Hussein's sons, Qusay and Uday, were both killed by US forces in July. A month later Ugandan Idi Amin Dada, who oversaw the death of more than 300,000 in his country, died at what most agreed was 78. His fifth wife claimed that 'Idi was a jolly person, very entertaining and kind. I think he was very kind to everyone'.

Gone, too, were Soong Mei-Ling, better known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 106, famed for her passionate oratorical skills; Ken Gampu, 74, who became the first black South African film star; and Cyla Wiesenthal, 95, after almost seven decades of marriage to Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. She survived concentration camps and even 'news' of her husband's death during the war.

In the middle of a football game against Colombia, Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed and later died. He was 28. After 21 hours of surgery in an effort to separate them, 29-year-old conjoined twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani died in a Singapore hospital.

Also bowing out: 135m Charles Dickens £10 notes, which have been fattening wallets since 1992, withdrawn from circulation. Thanks to the Duke of Kent, who believed the practice outdated, no longer will players at Wimbledon have to bow or curtsy to the royal box. And Europe's largest koi carp, which measured 1.32m, went to the great aquarium in the sky.

At the high end of the age groups, Kali Bi Sheikh and Batul Bi Sheikh, twin sisters from Siya, India, died within minutes of each other, at 114. They will be mourned by their 125 grand- and great-grandchildren. A retired silkworm breeder from Kyushu ended his reign as the world's oldest man - Yukichi Chuganji finally moved on at the age of 114 years, six months and five days. His last words: 'Thank you, it was good,' to his daughter after finishing a glass of homemade apple juice

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