Peter Brook, one of the most creative and controversial stage directors of his generation, has died aged 97, the AFP news agency is reporting.

A precocious talent, by his mid-20s he had a reputation as the grand old enfant terrible of the British stage.

Over the ensuing decades Brook put his stamp on the theatre, breaking many established conventions.

His productions, starring some of theatre’s most distinguished thespians, both enthralled and shocked audiences.

Brook, who had lived in France since 1974, died in Paris on Saturday, according to reports.

Peter Stephen Paul Brook was born in west London in March 1925, the son of Jewish immigrants.

He did not have a theatrical background, but after studying at Oxford University his talent was quickly spotted. At the age of 20 he was appointed director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

He soon moved on to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and then to the Royal Opera House where, as director of productions in the late 1940s, his work included La Boheme and Salome.

Brook was subsequently director at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

He later told the BBC that he regarded British post-war theatre as having become “old-fashioned, stereotyped and in the hands of a small number of very conventional people who did Shakespeare in the most boring way imaginable”.