“I would like to sincerely congratulate Bob Dylan on this great honour. The jury in Stockholm has made a bold decision which once again this year transcends the boundaries between genres. It is honouring one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, one who, more than any other artist, has enthralled millions of people around the world and touched their hearts with his lyrics and their profound truths.

We also heard today that Dario Fo, who was an equally surprising winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1997, has died at the age of 90. Not only Italy but Europe and indeed the entire world has lost a great playwright and dazzling entertainer, who always regarded the theatre as a venue for society-wide discussions and mounted his works in the midst of life, often outside the narrow, elitist confines of theatre buildings. He reached out to his audience with profound humour, caustic mockery and bizarre ideas and always saw his theatre work as a critical contribution to debate within society. We would have loved to have laughed with Fo and at his wonderful works one more time. We shall miss him.”