John Fowles, the author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman and cult novel The Magus, has died aged 79.

Mr Fowles, considered a master of multi-layered storytelling and ambiguous fate, died on Saturday, said a spokeswoman for his publishers, Jonathan Cape.

He had been unwell for several years following a stroke in 1988.

Mr Fowles was born in Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex, the son of a tobacconist and a school teacher. He loathed his suburban background and once said that he had spent the rest of life trying to escape.

After winning a place at Bedford School he went on to Oxford to study French, before becoming a teacher. He worked in schools in France and Greece before writing his first book, The Collector, in just four weeks.

The book - the story of a lonely city clerk who wins the pools - was released in 1963 and was an overnight success, paving the way for a full-time writing career.

Two years later The Magus followed, a part-autobiographical account of an Oxford graduate who moves to a Greek island and becomes drawn into a psychological 'godgame'. Complex and disturbing, it became a cult best-seller in the US.

The French Lieutenant's Woman, a Victorian pastiche of a scandalous love affair between an aristocrat and the outcast lover of a French officer, was turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in 1981.

His other novels were"Daniel Martin" (1977), "Mantissa" (1982) and "A Maggot" (1985). He also produced a short story collection, poetry and works of non-fiction.

Fowles, who survived a stroke in 1988, then suffered heart problems, is survived by his second wife, Sarah. His first wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer in 1990.

Fiercely private, he lived as a virtual recluse in a rambling house in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the setting of the book he referred to as TFLW, devoting himself to gardening and fossil collecting.

He relished the image of being a 'cantankerous old man of letters', and once complained of feeling persecuted by his readers.

"They want to see you and talk to you. And they don’t realise that very often that gets on one’s nerves," he said. "

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