An Oxford writer who has died of cancer had been predicted to become one of the biggest authors in the UK.

As reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail, Siobhan Dowd, who lived in West Oxford, died at Sobell House hospice on Tuesday, aged 47.

Her best-known work was her teen/adult crossover book A Swift Pure Cry, which tells the story of a pregnant girl in Ireland in 1984.

The novel won the Eilis Dillon award in Ireland for a debut children's author, was nominated for the Guardian Children's Book Prize and short-listed for the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.

Ms Dowd was married to librarian Geoff Morgan. They had no children.

Neighbour Fiona Hedges said: "She was a lovely, bubbly sort of woman and we liked her very much.

"She wrote beautiful books which children really seemed to like very much.

"She was very friendly and had a lovely sense of humour and she and Geoff used to do amazing Christmas cards with CDs. We shall miss her."

Tributes to Ms Dowd are being left on her website - www.siobhandowd.co.uk A statement read: "Siobhan passed away on Tuesday, August 21.

"She left behind a sad husband, her lovely family and many lovely books - some yet to be published.

"She gave the world so much and did not take it with her."

The youngest of four daughters, she began writing poems and stories at the age of seven and finished her first novel at nine years old.

She had a degree in Classics from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, and an MA from Greenwich University.

In May, she was included in Waterstones' list of the authors predicted to make a hit in the next few years, after being nominated by publishers, editors and agents as one of the top 25 writers of the next quarter century.

Ms Dowd co-founded a programme to take authors into schools in deprived areas, as well as prisons, young offenders' institutions and community projects.

Her second novel, The London Eye Mystery, was published in June. Two more are due to be published next year - Bog Child in February, and Solace of the Road at a date to be confirmed.