Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa was the last survivor of a golden generation of Latin American literary giants, his writing exploring universal themes often set outside his native Peru.

Admired for his depiction of social realities but criticised within Latin American intellectual circles for his conservative positions, Vargas Llosa -- who died Sunday at age 89 -- was a leading light of the "boom" generation that included greats like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortazar.

Winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, Varga Llosa passionately believed writers should be involved in civil society.

"We Latin Americans are dreamers by nature and we have trouble telling the difference between the real world and fiction," he said.

"That is why we have such good musicians, poets, painters and writers, and also such horrible and mediocre rulers."

But he courted controversy over his support for the war in Iraq and was a passionate admirer of Britain's "Iron Lady" prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Author of a vast body of work, spanning historical novels, erotic romances, crime novellas, light-hearted comedies, plays, memoirs and essays, Vargas Llosa also........

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