[peter richards]

Without peer I say, so the rest of us all move one rung up the ladder
not that there's a ladder, and anyway it's so long and the steps so small,
but we'll miss the guiding light up ahead.

[Trish Sims]

I've only just seen the news on Roger Elkin's page. What a huge loss of such a warm and lovely woman.

My condolences to her family.

[Nicholas Stone]

Very sad news. It seems quite wrong, there's hardly anyone more alive. I got to meet Annie when she accepted my invitation to come and speak and stay at Oxford a few years ago. We discussed whether she might be bothered by the ghost of Auden on her staircase (she wasn't). I remember her being completely in accord with her generous presence here on the forum, being completely at home talking about new trends in poetry with student poets in an excessively noisy bar, and writing a sonnet afterwards based on a particularly bizarre sentence we overheard. I am very glad to have had the chance to get to know her and learn from her.

[Gail White]

Ann's poem in the latest issue of The Oldie suggests that she was in treatment for cancer. (You can read it in Drills and Amusements, under "Ill Wind".) I'm so sad to think of not hearing that voice again.

[David Callin]

Thinking about Ann again last night, and also of one of my favourite hymns, also one of hers: Bunyan's "Who would true valour see".

I think a Maddy Prior version was one of her favourite renditions of that.

Does that ring a bell with anyone else?

[Joe Crocker]

Not sure about Ann's favourite hymns, but I do know she was a fan of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. She responded very enthusiastically to a post I made appearing to show them playing the Strangler's Golden Brown. It's a lovely bit of editing and composition.

https://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showt...k#post4682 83

[Mark McDonnell]

Mention of Maddy Prior made me remember something, David. When I picked Annie up from Shrewsbury station to drive her back to ours in Leek, I was playing an Unthanks CD in the car, and she was quite taken with it. We almost immediately started talking about folk music and before I knew it I'd turned the CD down and we were both singing a lusty rendition of Steeleye Span's Alison Gross and laughing our heads off. We'd only been in the car 5 minutes.

[David Callin]

Great stories both, Joe and Mark. What we'd expect from Ann.

Cheers

David

[Jan Iwaszkiewicz]

A great loss. So many now.

[Jayne Osborn]

Hello All,

Annie's funeral is to be held on Monday, 14th October, at 11.00. It will take place at Sirhowy Valley Crematorium in South Wales.

I will be attending, on behalf of Eratosphere and as a personal friend.

Jayne

PS. Sorry, originally stated as 12 0'clock, the funeral is at 11.00am.