Jane Bown's portraits

Bjork, 1995 Photograph: Jane Bown

Bono, photographed in Dublin docklands in 1987, when Bown spent a day with U2 Photograph: Jane Bown

Brassaï, 1982. Taken two years before he died, Jane remembers photographing Brassaï well - despite the language barrier, there was an immediate rapport Photograph: Jane Bown

Cilla Black on the eve of a recording trip to Paris in 1967 Photograph: Jane Bown

David Hockney, 1966 Photograph: Jane Bown

Dennis Hopper, 1982 Photograph: Jane Bown

Edith Sitwell, photographed in 1959 at the London Ladies Club. Jane Bown: “She was sitting in the dark and I didn’t dare move her” Photograph: Jane Bown

Groucho Marx, SJ Perelman and Kenneth Tynan, 1964 Photograph: Jane Bown

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1957 Photograph: Jane Bown

Jane Bown’s portrait of Bertrand Russell appeared in the Observer in 1949. She has worked for the paper for six decades Photograph: Jane Bown

Jayne Mansfield, her Hollywood career over, was appearing in working men’s clubs in the north of England when this photograph was taken in 1967. A week later she was killed in a car accident Photograph: Jane Bown

John Lennon, 1967 Photograph: Jane Bown

Liza Minnelli. Jane was given exclusive access to Minnelli as she rehearsed her one-woman show on the Palladium stage in 1973 Photograph: Jane Bown

Margaret Thatcher, 1983 Photograph: Jane Bown

Michael Caine, 1968 Photograph: Jane Bown

Mick Jagger, 1977 Photograph: Jane Bown

Ballerina Moira Shearer, 1950 Photograph: Jane Bown

Orson Welles, 1951 Photograph: Jane Bown

PJ Harvey, 1995 Photograph: Jane Bown

Paul McCartney, 1963 Photograph: Jane Bown

Philip Larkin outside Hull University library where he worked as a librarian Photograph: Jane Bown

Jane Bown on photographing Quentin Crisp at home in Chelsea in 1978: “I took him in his flat and it was filthy, absolutely disgusting – though he was perfectly pleasant. It was good to get out quickly nevertheless” Photograph: Jane Bown

Jane Bown on photographing Richard Harris in 1977: “I turned up at his hotel room and there he was, smoking in his dressing gown. I said: ‘Don’t move. I like it as you are’” Photograph: Jane Bown

Richard Nixon, 1978 Photograph: Jane Bown

Samuel Beckett. Pictured leaving the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London, via the stage door, after rehearsals of Happy Days starring Billie Whitelaw, as part of the Beckett season to celebrate his 70th birthday. April 1976 Photograph: Jane Bown

Sinead O'Connor, 1992 Photograph: Jane Bown

Spike Lee, undated Photograph: Jane Bown

Sylvester Stallone, 1979 Photograph: Jane Bown

The Queen, celebrating her 80th birthday in 2006 Photograph: Jane Bown

Woody Allen, 1994 Photograph: Jane Bown