It was my privilege to be with Mick in his final moments.  His last word were "I love the stoic philosophers".  A stoic himself, he bore all his treatments with no complaints.  The worst I ever heard was "I don't feel tickety-boo all the time"

Most people will know he was a prodigious reader with a memory like an elephant and would often quote me great swathes of text whilst I sat quietly on the phone 9,000 miles away. There was no way I could compete.  He was a great fan of Shakespeare and I would like to dedicate this to him.  It's from 'The Tempest' and I know he loved it.

"Our revels now are ended.  These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind.  We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

Sleep well my old friend.  Perhaps now you have some of the answers you were looking for down all these years.

I will miss you.

Frank