Milestones

RETIRED. JEREMY GUSCOTT, 34, fashion plate and prolific try-scorer; from international rugby. Unlike other greats of the sport, Guscott--who won 60 caps playing for England--didn't attend public school or university but worked as a bricklayer. He joined his local club side Bath and made his international debut against Romania in 1989. He helped England win consecutive Grand Slams in 1991-92. England's No. 2 all-time try scorer (behind Rory Underwood), Guscott will continue to play for Bath. DIED. JACK LYNCH, 82, charismatic sportsman and political leader, who served as Irish Prime Minister twice between 1966 and 1979; in Dublin. Lynch won six national medals in hurling and football in the 1940s before entering politics and, in 1973, moving Ireland into the European Economic Community. He also helped foster a more tolerant attitude toward British sovereignty in the Protestant-dominated North, which led to the reconciliation effort of 1993 and a peace agreement in 1998. DIED. PENELOPE MORTIMER, 81, novelist whose stories focused on failing marriages among the upper classes; in London. Her most successful work was 1962's The Pumpkin Eater, made into a film starring James Mason and Anne Bancroft. Her most notorious was 1986's Queen Elizabeth: A Life of the Queen Mother, which scandalously detailed the royal's romantic life before her marriage to the future King George VI. DIED. NATHALIE SARRAUTE, 99, Russian-born French novelist known as the doyenne of the nouveau roman movement that downplayed plot, characters and action in favor of underlying thoughts and emotions; in Paris. Sarraute published 17 books, 10 of them novels--including her most notable, 1939's Tropisms. Because of their formlessness, Jean-Paul Sartre called her works anti-novels. PULLED OUT. LAKHDAR BRAHIMI, 65, from his role as United Nations special envoy, citing unproductive efforts to end the Afghan conflict; in New York. The former Algerian Foreign Minister was appointed in 1997 by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to broker peace between the warring Taleban and North Alliance factions. In a statement, Brahimi faulted Pakistan and other Taleban supporters for undermining U.N. efforts. AWARDED. JOSE HIERRO, 77, gravel-voiced poet who rails against social injustice, Spain's National Poetry Award for his New York Notebook, a collection that has sold 25,000 copies; in Madrid. In April, Hierro won the Cervantes Prize, Spain's top honor for Literature. He fought for the Republicans in his country's 1936-39 Civil War and was imprisoned for four years after his side lost to General Francisco Franco's Nationalists.