Now Glenys Kinnock has died. As wife to Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock there was always the lingering impression that she was more left wing than he could allow himself to be.
In later years, after her husband gave up the leadership, she entered a political career on her own account being an MEP for many years and under Gordon Brown’s premiership took a UK government post.
So sad that she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last years of her life. That’s a fate not to be wished on anyone.
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock : 7/7/1944 – 3/12/2023. So it goes
As fiancée and, later, wife to the pretty hapless Bob Ferris (played by Rodney Bewes) Thelma had a good line in exasperation, very well portrayed by Forsyth.
Forsyth had an extensive stage career as well as many parts on TV and film, the most recent of which was as Madge in Still Open All Hours.
Brigit Dorothea Connell (Brigit Forsyth:) 28/7/1940 – 1/12/2023. So it goes.
The pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang have been seen for the last time at Edinburgh zoo as they have been returned to China after twelve years.
I’m not really keen on zoos so hadn’t been to see them in all that time.
However, our young granddaughter has been taken there several times and loves the animals so we made a family visit in April where I got some photos of the pandas (through glass.)
People who won’t have consciously known of his work will certainly have seen it (if they are of a certain age.) He contributed album covers to the work of both Billy Connolly and – his partner in the Humblebums – Gerry Rafferty, both in his time with Stealers Wheel and his solo work.
Indeed Rafferty wrote a song, Patrick, in Byrne’s honour. (In Byrne’s early days he used his father’s – and his own middle – name.)
It was as a playwright though that Byrne made most impact on the public consciousness, firstly with the stage play The Slab Boys, for which he drew on his experiences in the paint shop of a carpet maker’s, and subsequently with the TV series Tutti Frutti and Your Cheatin’ Heart of blessed memory.
Hie art work is distinctive. You can rarely mistake a Byrne painting for one by someone else.
The video below is illustrated with some of Byrne’s art works.
The Humblebums: Patrick
John Patrick Byrne: 6/1/1940 – 30/11/2023. So it goes.
And now Shane McGowan has gone. I doubt he needs any introduction.
There is really only one song that I can use to illustrate his legacy. It is most people’s favourite “Christmas” song. It does not deal with traditional Christmas themes.
I note this is not the version with the “cleaned-up” lyric. (Though the person typing out the lyrics did misspell a four letter word.)
The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl: Fairy Tale of New York
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan: 25/12/1957 – 30/11/2023. So it goes.
I saw on today’s news that Alistair Darling has died.
He was Chancellor of the Exchequer during the 2008 financial crash and is credited by many as having been instrumental in ameliorating its consequences. That its perpetrators/enablers subsequently were not punished for causing it – as they ought to have been – cannot be laid at his door.
He seems to have been well thought of all round. Not something that can be said of the usual run of politicians.
Alistair Maclean Darling: 28/11/1953 – 30/11/2023. So it goes.
I hesitate to mention Henry Kissinger, whose death was also announced today, in the same breath. The two could hardly have been more different.
Henry (Heinz ) Alfred Kissinger: 27/5/1923 – 29/11/2023. So it goes.
I was sad to hear of the death of Terry Venables, former footballer and England manager, with many strings to his bow.
Not least was that he became manager of Barcelona, whom he led to their first La Liga title in 11 years and to a first European Cup Final in 25 years. Soon nicknamed El Tel he had endeared himself to the fans just after his appointment by addressing them in Catalan.
His interests outside football were less inspiring, with question marks over his business affairs.
More to his credit though was that along with Gordon Williams he was the co-creator of Hazell, a fictional TV detective. The pair also wrote a football based book together They Used to Play on Grass as well as several other novels featuring Hazell.
It is for his footballing legacy that he will be remember longest though.
Terence Frederick Venables: 6/1/1943 – 25/11/2023. So it goes.
She won the Booker Prize in 1990 for her novel Possession: A Romance, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Children’s Book in 2009, but the only work of hers I have read is Ragnarok: the end of the Gods.
I really ought to have got round to at least those two award winners.
So many books, and only 365 days a year to read them in.
Antonia Susan Duffy (A S Byatt;) 24/8/1936 – 16/11/2023. So it goes.
I have posted before about the memorial to the five boys from Markinch who died in the Ibrox Disaster.
Earlier this year a fence was erected around the memorial in order to protect it from accidental damage. (Delivery vans had been going over the grass surrounding it.)
