Christopher Nolan | Irish writer, 43

Christopher Nolan, 43, an Irish poet and novelist who refused to let cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing, died Friday in a Dublin hospital.

He had choked on a piece of food, according to a statement from his family carried in the Irish media.

Mr. Nolan's brain was starved of oxygen during birth, leaving him unable to speak or control his arms or legs.

He might have remained isolated from the outside world if not for a drug, Lioresal, which restored some of his muscle function. His parents nurtured their partially paralyzed son's literary talent.

Using a "unicorn stick" strapped to his forehead to tap the keys of a typewriter, Mr. Nolan laboriously wrote out messages and, eventually, poems and books.

He was 11 when his writing first turned lyrical, said his mother, Bernadette, and his father, Joe, read him poetry and passages from James Joyce's Ulysses.

Mr. Nolan published Dam-Burst of Dreams, a collection of poetry, at 15. Even then, critics compared it to Joyce.

His autobiography, Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of Christopher Nolan, won the prestigious Whitbread Award in 1988. The third-person account describes Mr. Nolan's longing for an education and the liberation of finally being able to type out his feelings.

The book was a frank but sometimes hilarious account of his disability: He described his arm flying out to grab a woman's skirt and how his mouth sometimes remained stubbornly shut when he wanted to take communion.

- AP