A career newspaperman, he started as a film journalist in his native South Africa and went on to be a theatre and TV critic for two London tabloids; he moonlighted as a song lyricist, writing the words for “Goodness Gracious Me,” “Yesterday When I Was Young,” and Charles Aznavour’s “She.” Then came the offer to write the English adaptation of an old flop, a French musical version of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables — and, as he later said, “I was able to give up my day job at 61.” – Variety