'Ashes' author McCourt dies, aged 78

Rex Features

Angela's Ashes writer Frank McCourt has passed away, aged 78.

The best-selling author died from cancer at a New York hospice on Sunday, according to the New York Times. The American had suffered from meningitis and was recently treated for a melanoma.

Angela's Ashes, McCourt's most famous novel, was based on the writer's youth in the Irish town of Limerick. He moved to Ireland with his parents as a child during the Great Depression.

The book, which won him the Pulitzer Prize, was turned into a film in 1999 starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.

McCourt's other novels included 'Tis and Teacher Man.

Before becoming an author, McCourt worked as an English teacher at McKee High School and Stuyvesant High School in New York for 30 years.