BEVERLEY NICHOLS, British author, born (d: 1983); At the age of twenty-five, Beverley Nichols was famous, his successful book, appropriately called Twenty-Five, praised as representing the spirit of the Twenties. Ted Morgan’s thumbnail sketch in his biography of Somerset Maugham is letter perfect: "Beverley was pretty ‒ he looked like a faun escaped from the woods."

Beverley was amusing. While at Balliol he had convulsed the Oxford Union with the facetious remark that ‘women should have the courage of their complexions.’…Beverley was facile, and could write a two thousand word interview based on a two-minute meeting. Beverley was flamboyant, like young Byron was flamboyant. Beverley was homosexual…” Still, Nichols books are well worth reading. He may be lah-de-dah, but he’s frequently quite funny and his books on gardening, in particular, are quite lovely.

Nichols is perhaps best remembered as a writer for Woman's Own and for the gardening books, the first of which Down the Garden Path, was illustrated — as were many of his books — by Rex Whistler. This bestseller — which has had thirty-two editions and has been in print almost continuously since 1932 — was the first of his trilogy about Allways, his Tudor thatched cottage in Cambridgeshire.

Nichols was a prolific author who wrote on a wide range of topics. He ghostwrote soprano Dame Nellie Melba's "autobiography" Memories and Melodies (1925), and in 1966 he wrote A Case of Human Bondage about the marriage and divorce of W. Somerset Maugham and Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo, which was highly critical of Maugham. Father Figure, which appeared in 1972 and in which he described how he had tried to murder his alcoholic and abusive father, caused a great uproar and several people asked for his prosecution. His autobiographies usually feature Arthur R. Gaskin who was Nichols’ manservant from 1924 until Gaskin's death from cirrhosis in 1966. Nichols made one appearance on film - in 1931 he appeared in Glamour directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes playing the part of the Hon. Richard Wells. Nichols' long-term life partner was Cyril Butcher.

PERRY ELLIS, fashion designer (d. 1986); an American fashion designer who founded a sportswear house in the mid-1970s. Throughout the 1980s the company continued to expand and include various labels such as Perry Ellis Collection and Perry Ellis Portfolio. By 1982, the company had more than seventy-five staff. In 1984, Perry Ellis America was created in cooperation with Levi Strauss. In 1985, he revived his lesser-priced Portfolio line. In the early 1980s, wholesale revenues had figured at about $60 million. By 1986 that number had risen to about $250 million.

Perry Ellis fell seriously ill during the mid-1980s. Initially, it was not said what he was suffering from, although he had been treated for hepatitis in a previous year. At the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) annual awards ceremony in January of 1986 he had to be accompanied to the podium by an aide to receive his award. In May of that year, Ellis was not able to perform his traditional skip down the runway anymore and, looking shockingly gaunt and frail, had to be supported by two of his employees when he briefly appeared at the end of the show.

It was to be his last fashion show and he received standing ovations for it. Immediately after the show, he was admitted to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center where he fell into a coma and died two weeks later of viral encephalitis, an AIDS-related disease, on May 30, 1986. A memorial was held at the New York Ethical Culture Society that June. Perry Ellis was dead at 46 and one of the first prominent American figures to succumb to AIDS.

DANNY KAYE, American actor, singer, and comedian, died (b. 1913); The Secret Life of Walter Mitty…indeed. According to biographer Donald Spoto, Kaye and Laurence Olivier had a 10-year affair in the 1950s, when Olivier was still married to Vivien Leigh. A biography of Leigh states that their affair caused her to have a breakdown. Olivier's official biographer, Terry Coleman, denies the affair, but Olivier's widow, Joan Plowright, confirmed the story.