On January 8, David Bowie turned 69 and released his critically acclaimed Blackstar album. Two days later, the world awoke to the news of his death. Unknown to almost everybody, David had been battling against cancer. This shocking and for many hard to accept loss was to unfortunately set the tone for the coming months.
The BBC revealed that from January 1 to March 31, 2016, they had published 24 obituaries - twice as many as over the same period in 2015.
The infographic below highlights how grim the year has been so far in terms of losing our cultural icons. Only four days after Bowie's passing, Alan Rickman. Then Sir Terry Wogan. Harper Lee. The fifth Beatle George Martin. Paul Daniels. Comic legend Ronnie Corbett. David Gest. Victoria Wood. The most recent blow came in the diminutive shape of music megastar Prince. 2016, it would seem, is going to be a cruel year.
You can read more about this at theweek.co.uk.
Please note, that this is a UK-centric selection of high profile deaths and is not intended to be exhaustive.
A terrible year for celebrity deaths
