I was all set to knock out one of my usual trivial pieces, this time about going on the beach barefoot yesterday (after all, it couldn’t be that cold. Yes, it could) when I got an email from Neil with the sad news that one of our fellow Orieladelphians, Edward, had died suddenly on 22nd March. He’d not long reached 60, which is no age to be dying.

We’re not sure what the cause was – Neil guessed heart attack, which is as good a guess as any at the moment. Immediate reactions from other on-line members included “bloody hell!”, “dreadful shock”, “dismayed”. Diana, when I told her, said she’d miss his conversation at the annual Friends & Family dinner. The next one of those is in less than two weeks, so I imagine it will be a bit subdued – although I’m less sure that Edward would want that.

Edward and I were assigned to share rooms in our first year at Oriel in 1971 and we’ve been friends ever since, despite his becoming a monk of the Order of St. Benedict and my veering away from the C of E to become an atheist.

I shall miss him, too.