John Updike has died, aged 76, from lung cancer. The author of dozens of books, he will possibly be best remembered for creating the character of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, who appeared in four novels, two of which won Pulitzer Prizes. Regardless of how some critics and writers felt about Updike’s work, haggling over whether its quality peaked and troughed, he set an astonishing standard of artistic yet craftsman-like guts and tenacity – Updike’s impressive oeuvre suggests that he showed up at the page, day after day after day, with his door closed against the sound and fury of the literary world, knowing his only true responsibility was to do the work….