Kurt Vonnegut

I've just seen the news that Kurt Vonnegut has died. It will be left to more worthy voices than my own to make a long eloquent tribute to the man, but I wanted to just say that he was one of my favourite writers. He was always pessimistic, even when optimism was in vogue. I liked that. I appreciated it. He was darkly funny, but always with a point more serious than the so called 'serious' writers. He proved that comedy could be a force of real intellect.

There will be more eloquent tributes I'm sure, but I just wanted to say that I'll miss his sombre, gruff, depressing but disquietingly human voice. He could always make me laugh those deep painful belly laughs. There are so few people who can do that. He was also another of those very few people I will now always regret never having met, at least once to say thank you.

And so it goes...