Carolyn Soutar, author and theatre manager

Originally from London, she moved to Scarborough – her mother’s home town – in 2017 and swiftly established herself as a local personality, social figure, arts supporter and popular speaker, hosting a series of lunchtime lectures.

She had trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and worked as a stage manager, event organiser and production assistant, in a career that embraced opera, ballet, orchestras, dramatic theatre, pantomime and stand-up comedy.

From the late 1970s, she worked as stage manager for English National Opera at the London Coliseum, the annual Nureyev Festivals, and on tour, nationally and internationally. She went on to create and produce events around the world for the National Trust, Sony, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Land Rover.

She drew on her experiences to write three books, including one on Rudolf Nureyev and a biography of the comedian Dave Allen, with whom she toured.

She is survived by an extended family of cousins in Scarborough.