People of the Year - December

The year in people: December

George Best: Death by drink

George Best finally expired after a seven-week illness the same day 24 hour drinking was legalised in Britain. The men in their 50s who run the media manufactured a frenzy of grief and Best was sent on his way with a funeral which was one Elton John number short of a Diana. The small amount of footage that still exists of Best in his heyday was endlessly recycled while the papers carried dull opinion pieces about what his pathetic decline said about us "as a nation". Old friends spoke of a quiet, down-to-earth guy who never acted the superstar, even though it seemed that his superstar behaviour was precisely what had destroyed his career by the age of 26. Obituary writers preferred to focus on Best's godlike talent, good looks and occasional bon mots ("if I had been born ugly, you would never have heard of Pele") rather than his wife-beating, casual racism ("Pele wasn't bad for a nigger") and incredible selfishness in resuming drinking after receiving a lifesaving liver transplant. Elsewhere in the UK an estimated 60 people died in 2005 while awaiting a liver transplant; these passings went largely unremarked.

Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize in Literature

In the year in which he celebrated his 75th birthday, Harold Pinter was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in London to working class Jewish parents in 1930, Pinter briefly attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before leaving to pursue a career in the theatre as an actor, producer and writer. He wrote a total of 29 plays, including The Caretaker, The Room and The Birthday Party, as well as 21 screenplays, two of which earned Oscar nominations: The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal. His most recent work was a book of poetry called War, released in 2003, in which the writer protested against the invasion of Iraq.

Pinter was honoured this summer with a season of performances and readings of his work in Dublin's Gate Theatre; actors Jeremy Irons, Stephen Rea, John Hurt Sinead Cusack and many more took to the stage during Pinter75: A Celebration.

Harold Pinter announced in January 2005 that he was to retire from writing to dedicate himself fully to campaigning for freedom of speech and human rights. He had already been a vocal campaigner for many years; famously, in the 1980s, he and his travelling companion Arthur Miller were thrown out of an Embassy dinner in Turkey for discussing the torture of imprisoned writers. He is active in the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and is a member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic.

Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance speech was filmed prior to the ceremony, and his award was picked up by his publisher Stephen Page; the writer is undergoing treatment for throat cancer and was unable to travel. He has campaigned against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last number of years, and took this opportunity to address the issue. In his address, Pinter spoke about the search for truth in literature and politics, claiming that "language was actually employed to keep thought at bay" by US politicians. He called the United States "the greatest show on the road" and Great Britain, "pathetic and supine".

Harold Pinter has spawned his own adjective over the years: "Pinteresque" refers to something that conveys deep meaning despite an apparent ambiguity or banality.

Other prizewinners of note in 2005 included John Banville (Man Booker), Simon Starling (Turner Prize), and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed El Baradei (Nobel Peace Prize). p 05 review